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La Mixteca Region Palenque Tour Stop 6 – Amando Alvarez – Santa Maria Ixcatlán

After our morning of confused hotel rooms and missed connections,  we said good-bye to Cornelio’s wife and headed on to our last stop of this three day tour. We were heading to Santa Maria Ixcatlán, to meet Amando Alvarado, the well known maestro who does cowhide fermentation and clay pot distillation for his papalomet mezcals.  But first, we had to have some more confusion.

The first dose came in the form of a disappearing road. We’d been directed to a dirt road that would save us an hour or so of driving, but it grew progressively worse until it became unpassable. So bad and narrow that we had to back up several hundred meters before we could even effect our 10-point turnaround, this ended up costing us a couple of hours.  As a result, we didn’t arrive in S.M. Ixcatlán until late in the afternoon.

The second bit of unexpected chaos was a great kind; there was a festival going on!
While Ixcatlán once was a thriving town with thousands of residents, its industry has withered, it’s young people move out, and its currently home to only 500 people. Typically now a town of many buildings but few people; but not today.

Omar has set us up with a wonderful surprise, by planning our arrival day to coincide with Ixcatlán’s annual religious celebration, the “Santuario del Señor de las Tres Caidas”, or “The lord of the three falls”.  It celebrates the bible passage when Jesus is walked to Calvary and he falls three times while carrying the cross. Ixcatlan is the focus of an annual pilgrimage to honor this event and an image of it that resides in the church.  Thousands of pilgrims descend upon the town for a celebration that goes on for several days, and we’d pulled into town at the event’s apex.  There were tents setup in very vacant lot in town, food stalls and vendors everywhere, and thousands of people about.

Of course, this celebration combined with our late arrival meant all our plans went awry. Don Amando had meant to show us his palenque early in the day, so that he could then attend to festival responsibilities that night. There was no time now to go to the palenque, as he was busy helping out in his families small shop. But come, come, we’ll go there now for a meal!  

The next six hours were absolute wonderous mayhem. Much of it forgotten in the haze of firework smoke and too many copitas of excellent cuero de vaca mezcals. We joined the parade as we walked toward Don Amandos. I noticed we were attracting a lot of attention; it was only several hours later that I realized why:   we were the only two Caucasian tourists in the entire town.   This resulted in a constant stream of curious stares, shy greetings, and braver questioning from those who spoke a bit of English.  Id’ often find myself talking to someone and then there would be 3 people…then 7…then 15.  As Omar said “You got interviewed a lot today”.

When we got to the shop, we found they’d converted it into a restaurant for the festival. There were 25-30 people crowded around tables, eating goat stew and quesadillas and drinking Victorias.  We were ushered into the kitchen, where we met Amandos family and ate around a big table.  The meal was delicious, and so too were the copitas of Papalomet that we were offered.  I’ve heard the term “funky” mentioned for  owhide mezcals in the past, and I’ve tasted a few that would qualify, but these were at another level. Super lactic, with an almost cheesecake flavor in the background.  Excellent stuff.  And the difference between it and Jose Froylan, who also uses cowhide but treetrunk rather than claypot, was marked.

We headed out from there to check out the dances, shop at the stalls, and drink more mezcal. We went to the Community Hall, where we were told that the townspeople provided free meals to the pilgrims…and that the local mezcaleros had each donated a garafon of their mezcals.  While most were being fed at tables outside, our unexpected appearance got us inside access, and we spent the next hour meeting a half dozen mezaleros and sampling their wares. I’m pretty sure Amando’s son was one of them, and I distinctly remember Victor Munoz; partly because he was a cop AND mezcalero, and partly because I bought one of his liters.  As we were doing all of this drinking in the dusky room, I also noticed that we were sitting in a tinder keg.  The room was packed with fireworks…and they’re about to get lit so lets go!

We left town around 11pm. Spent, full, and wonderfully content.  We didn’t get the opportunity to visit our palenque as planned, but what had transpired was even better and unplannable: a racous day filled with color and mezcals and friendly people.  My only sorrow was that we now had 2.5 hours of driving to get to Oaxaca and our hotel, and that our road trip was ending.

We tasted:  

Papalome

Papalometl

Espadilla

Ticuchi

Espadin

Pictures:
Amando Alvarez
Getting sprayed at the parade
Victor Munoz
Firworks room
Drunk Devils
Cucharillo wreaths
Fireworks dancing

Eating at Campo in Albuquerque tonight. Here’s the list 🤯

After leaving Noel’s palenque, we made a long late night drive to the tiny town of Tepelmeme Villa de Morelos, in the La Mixteca region of NW Oaxaca.  A tiny town of just 400 people, it had no mezcal production or touristic things to attract us other than a small motel, where we thought we’d reserved rooms. Unfortunately, our 1am arrival found the hotel to be out of business and boarded up  Fortunately, we located a second small place that appeared to be in business, and after some prolonged knocking at the door, a host appeared and rented us rooms.

I was assigned room #14, but repeated attempts to open the door failed. Thinking I might have misunderstood in my mezcal fogged brain, I tried #15 next door and voila, it opened!  The room was spartan at best; just a bottom sheet on the bed, and no towels. But there was a laundry room next door and I grabbed some towels and a blanket and we passed out.  In the morning, I took a cold shower with no soap.  It was only when we went to return the key and the host looked at mere in shock when I told her I’d slept in #15 that I learned  I WAS supposed to have been able to sleep in #14, but the door had jammed.  The room I’d managed to get into wasn’t in use, hence the lack of sheets/towels/soap.  We laughed it off , had a great simple breakfast at a small place next door that featured rare wheat based tortillas and then headed out for our final day…where nothing went as planned. Maybe the night had been forshadowing?

So nothing went as planned and it couldn’t have been better. (Or more appropriate, as in my experience, virtually any day of a planned palenque visits may include some unanticipated change or surprise.  Learn to embrace them and you’ll usually be glad you did. Try to fight them and you’ll usually fail. I’ve suffered disappointments like a mezcalero contacting me the morning of a visit to apologize and say something has come up. Or driving 3 hours only to then be told that they don’t have any mezcal left to sell and only two to try a copita of.But I’ve also arrived at palenques to be included in unexpected  and wonderful invitations to join a quinceanera or taapada de horno celebrations. You just have to go with it.).

Our first planned stop for the day at the home of mezcalero Cornelio Correa. He’s not somebody I’ve ever heard of and likely neither have you.  His mezcal has never been exported or labeled.  Like many in this region, he is a man who makes mezcal as a part of his cultural identity and to supplement his income, as opposed to one who makes their living producing mezcal. And unfortunately, for this reason, we arrived to find him gone for the day dealing with an unexpected agricultural issue. But fortunately, his wife and kids were home and she happily invited us to make ourselves comfortable in the yard where we tasted some of Cornelio’s mezcals. He roasts in the smallest horno I’ve ever seen, makes only a couple of hundred liters per year using local wild agaves, and likes them strong.  She only had two to offer, a papalometl and an espadilla. Both ran 52%, and both were excellent.  So while our visti was brief, it was fruitful. We thanked her for her time, gifted the kids some kites and coloring books, and headed on towards our final stop in Santa Maria Ixcatlán for more misadventures.

Mezcals tasted:
Espadilla and Papalometl, both at 52%.
Copper still

Photos:
The copper still during off season.
Beautiful hills and barren dirt roads.
Mrs. Correla
The smallest horno I've ever seen
New farming tools, provided by the Mexican government.
More lost roads but were not lost.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon last year in Mexico, and I bought a bottle of Mezcal at the Diego Rivera Anahuacalli Museum. I know adding the scorpion to a bottle of Mezcal is considered a gimmick in this community, but it was a fun bottle to buy and now we have a magical remembrance of that day.

¡Dixeebe!

Mezonte - Raicilla Japo
mezcalero: Hildegardo Joya
location: Cabo Corrientes,Jalisco
Lote: 3
Batch size: 300L
Year: 2019
maguey: amarillo (a. rhodacantha)
Grind: mazo de madera
oven: horno baja tierra
water: dr manantial
Distillation: copper alambique with internal condenser, filipino still in tree trunk

nose: honeysuckle, slightly lactic, yogurt
palate: sweet, tiny hickory smoke, a little funk but not much, green bell pepper

RIP Japo. He passed away at age 92. What a wonderful spirit. I am sorry I wasnt able to meet him. 

Leaving Melecio Meza’s, we drive back down the bumpy riverbed, then hit pavement as we enter the center of the village of Coatepec. Omar pulls up to a little shop and a woman comes out to greet us. They have a brief exchange,  then she hands  him a large basket and he waves her goodbye and returns to the car. “What’s this?” I ask. “Es la comida” he replies. The woman was Maria Elissa, the wife of Maestro Noel Negrellos. She has prepared dinner for us, which we are going to transport up to the palanque where Noel is. She’s going to close up shop and then join us shortly for dinner.

So up the hill we go. It’s a blessedly short drive on a smooth road, which is appreciated after the long mornings. Noel greets us as we arrive at the palenque . Wow, what a view. One of the most beautiful settings of the thirty or so palenques we’ve visited. We take a tour as Noel describes his process and history in the area. I pay attention, but I also keep getting distracted by the magnificent view of the mountains that loom across from us. They are dotted with beautiful giant agaves, the sun is setting, and it’s just spectacular.

Dona Maria soon arrives, as does an adult son on his motorcycle. We all sit down for a dinner of beef soup with squash, and  once again, it’s fantastic. At every stop we’ve made this trip we’ve been indulged with incredibly delicious meals. Everyone of them as good or better as any restaurant I can think of in the city of Oaxaca. A real treat.  Afterwards, we sample our way through Noel’s mezcals. 

He distills in copper, on a still which someone has enscribed with “Perdimos Los Dos”; a popular old song by Pedro Infante.  Using spring and well water interchangeably; he explains that it’s a seasonal decision. His well is only 3 meters deep, so in the dry season it often runs dry and he must pump from a spring far away. But in the water seasons, what his own water is available on site he uses that. He typically proofs his mezcals at about 50%.

The very first copita he offers us is a new agave to me. (Which, in fact is a big part of the reason we went on this adventure. We wanted to delve into Puebla and Mixteca agave’s and blends that are new to us and we’ve absolutely succeeded in that regard.). Noel describes this distillation as.Candellillo, a karwinski agave. We take a walk so we can see one while enjoying the exceptional mezcal it makes. We move on and sample other creations. A papalomete that has clean and bright flavors. A Jabali with a beautiful minty finish and a viscous/syrupy mouth feel. I complement Noel on such and he suggests that it might have that feel because this is a triple distilled Mezcal.

Next comes a Tobola. Noel confesses that he is not sure he’s proud of this creation. He rarely works with this agave and in fact doesn’t grow any himself. He bought this batch of agaves from a friend and distilled it. But he’s not sure he’s happy with the results and proposes that it might be because he’s just not familiar with it, those plants don’t grow where he lives. We then discover that the friend was Melicio, and that the agaves were grown a scant 5 miles away! Such is the regionality of these areas, that Noel considers that "not from around here".

We sample several more are once again all  are great quality. I bought some of each. And then, as we are leaving and saying good-byes, a beautiful thing happened between my wife (who speaks virtually no Spanish _and Maria Alicia (who had no English). But somehow those two had felt a connection throughout the visit, sodwhen the they came together for a good night, hug, they grabbed onto each other like friends who’d known each other since birth, and hugged tightly for literally a minute. Not a word spoken. As we drove away, I asked my what was going on and she said they’d felt a connection but couldn’t communicate until that moment with anything except their eyes. So that hug had said it all. It was a lovely finish to a great day. But yeah, it was time to hit the road. Already approaching 9 o’clock and we still have a three hour drive to reach our nights resting place, the small town of Tepelmeme.

We tried:
Candelillo @ 50%
Rabu de Leon @ 50%
Papalometl@ 50%

Tobala @ 50%
Pichomel @ 50%

Espadilla @ 50%

Pictures:
Noel

Candelillo
Palenque View
Perdimo Still

Curious if anybody thinks there's a difference between the Mal Bien Sonido papalote vs. the Cinco Sentidos Sonido papalote... I've had the M.B. and I was not blown away but it's not bad...

A $34+/- difference where I am...

Mal Bien $86

C.S. $120

I haven’t tried every producer in Logoche, but I did notice my favorite bottles are from Manuel. Also, I have extra bottles if anyone is interested. DM me.

Solid. Good middle of the road mezcal that never disappoints.

Hi All, I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this place in San Diego called Old Town Liquors (Old Town Tequila) but I’m making a trip out west and was going to stock up on some tequila and mezcal.

For those of you that are familiar with that location, I was hoping you could give me some recommendations of some interesting or rare bottles that you know they stock.

If you don’t know the spot, it’s basically a tequila/mezcal super store that has a huge selection, so recommendations in general would be appreciated!

I have some ideas of what I want already but would love to get some ideas of bottles that I’m probably not thinking of. I live in Florida without one of the super liquor stores near me, so I don’t have access to many of the brands you guys talk about on here.

I really like mezcal but hardly know anything about it. I like funky agave varieties and not just espadine (but I do love my espadin bottles). I would really like a joven but generally drink blancos. As far as the tequila I like, I generally like peppery/high proof blancos like Ocho and tequila’s that are agave forward. There aren’t too many aged bottles I like a whole lot, but I do like repos from Don Fulano and chamucos and jovens are amazing.

Anyway, I would appreciate any recommendations from anyone that knows the location or not! Thank you in advance!

Edit: since more people than I realized are familiar with the location, are you guys also familiar with cantina Mayahuel in north park? I’m a big fan of their barrel pours and their Don Lorenzo line of mezcal

*And then of course I misspell his name on an uneditable title. Apologies Melecio.*

Our second day of exploring began with a jaw dropping view.  After tasting at Jose’s the prior day, we’d had to drive 3 hours to reach our nights lodging, which was down a dirt road outside of the small town of Zapotitlan. Arriving late at night and exhausted, we’d stumbled into the dark to our small cabinas and passed out without seeing much.  But waking up was a different story. There were thousands of giant cactus and hundreds of blooming agaves all around us. We were in the Tehuacán-Cuicatián Biosphere Reserve, which is the world’s largest cactus preserve. It has over 80 varieties of cactus and it’s a stunning place.

But we had palenque plans, so we began the long drive to the village of Coatepec to meet Melicio Meza and try the mezcals he sells under his brand name “60 Fieros”.

It’s a fantastic drive. Beginning in the cactus and agave forest of the valley floor in Zapotitlan which is awash in golden blooms of flowering quiotes and mesquite trees, then running through a grove of ancient elephant foot trees. Omar tells us the trees grow only a couple of millimeters per year, and some that we’re seeing may be more than 1000 years old. 

The road then begins a steep twisting ascent towards the pass, and the blooming plants quickly disappear as we gain altitude. The elephant trees are replaced by scrub, while the agave endure. We then wind our way down the backside of the mountain and make our way through several small communities, when suddenly we find the road blocked by boulders. A hand lettered sign informs us the road is out and we must detour down the riverbed. And so it’s 20 slow kilometers down the dry gravel and dirt track. Finally, after two and a half hours of driving, we reach Santiago Coatepec and the home of Melecio Meza.

Melecio welcomes us, then ushers us immediately into a room whose walls are lined with mezcal filled garrafons and a single giant table in the middle. It’s strewn with goblet shaped glasses and a plastic pitcher filled with Jabali. He has a generous wrist: there must be 3- 4 ounces poured into each glass. Then he turns to Omar and they begin a rapid fire conversation. They are obviously old friends and need some catching up. Chido, the rest of us are happy to relax and drink some mezcal while they do so. Melecio’s friend Raymundo has joined us, and he tips another garrafon, fills it with another mezcal, and fills more full glasses. It’s clear we’re here to drink, not to taste.

This one is sublime. A papalome, native to the area. The flavors are all over the place ; first earthy and green and a bit funky, then fruit flavors appear, and then…is that the earthy part coming back with some green minerality? The flavors linger in my mouth for incredibly long time, and my wife commented that they hit every part of her mouth. The top sides, the front and the back. That caught Melecio’s attention, and he ended his conversation with Omar and turned his attention to the rest of us. He told my wife she was absolutely right. 

And then he proudly told us that this Mezcal we were drinking was the recent Grand Gold winner as the best mezcal of the yeat the  Concours Mondial de Bruzelles 2025. He pointed to the wall and there was the certificate confirming that fact. And he told us he had just been awarded a generous cash prize by the governor for having done so. Well, damn, talk about being in the right place at the right time. Obviously this accomplishment called for a toast! So the copita’s got filled again and now here we are less than an hour intovisit and we’re all getting pretty happy.But hey, we have to go see the palenque too, no?

Melecio fills a bottle with yet another mezcal, remind us to bring our glasses, and off we wnt. It’s  a lovely half mile walk walk down the dry river bed to his palenque. The palenque itself has a half dozen or so stills and an equal number of wooden fermenting vat tinas. I’m fascinated as he walks us through the timeline of development of the past 25 years as he slowly built and expanded this operation. We try some Jabali as we talk; another gem. Melecio has all sorts of stills. Some utilize 55 gallon steel drums, which was the only material he had available in his early years. Most are the more traditional looking copper stills. And then another is a sonora hybrid that he built recently to satisfy his own curiosity after having seen the similar one elsewhere. It features hollowed out tree logs as water troughs in the cooling system for the distillation. 

After returning to the house, we were treated to an exceptional lunch. Carne Asada, frijoles, guacamole, and fresh made dragon fruit juice. (We also learned that dragon fruit is a huge crop in this region.

We finished up the afternoon trying yet another distillation,  an ensemble of espadilla, papalome, and papalometl. Melicio typically proofs at 46%., but he’s bumped this one up to 50%, and it shows. Or maybe that’s just the prior seven or eight copitas were feeling? 

In any case, it’s time for us to go. We’d love to stay longer and everyone’s having a great time, but we have another stop to make and it’s already pushing 5 o’clock. Thanks and hugs go around the room, a bunch of liters get poured and sold, and off we go. Another wonderful visit that we’ll never forget.

We tried:

Papalome @ 46%

Jabali u/46%

Ensamble u/50% (espadilla/papalome/papalomet)

Tepeztate, @ 46%

Machine crush- spring water - wood tina- copper still- double distillation.

Pictures:
Melecio and label
Agave cactus

Cactus

Copper capped still
Melicio and Raymundo with claypot still
Palenque with tinas
Offroading in La Mixteca

I'm already deep into tequila, and have tried a few mezcals (Bozal Ensamble, Nosotros, and Me Mama mi Dijo--the standard and, unfortunately, since I got a free sample, the pineapple).

What are some good bottles around $30-$75? I already liked (most of) what I tried, but I always like trying new things.

Any reccomendations appreciated on your favorite selections. I will be going to Santiago Matatlan and Santa Catarina Minas.

Our second stop on our Mixteca tour was at the home of Don Jose Froylan in San Bernardino Tepenene.  It’s i small town of 900 in the Puebla sector of the Mixteca. Some mezcal nerds might recognize it as the home of  Abdias De La Luz Rodriguez, who gets exported under the Luneta brand, but that’s about it.  Only 4% of the mezcal produced in Mexico comes out of the Puebla region, and not much makes it into the US.

Don Jose and his wife greeted us upon arrival and immediately ushered us into their house for lunch. Seasoned rice and chicken in a red salsa, which Omar instantly proclaimed as one of the five best he’s had in his life. I won’t disagree with that assessment. We were also treated to copitas of a Pechuga made with mole poblano and saffron. We added cold beers, pesos, and our heartfelt thanks as our contribution to the feast.

With lunch completed, we walked down to the palenque. Don Jose had some beautiful papalome/cupreata agaves around the area, and a friendly burro to protect them. His production process includes well water, machete cutting followed by machine chipping, fermentation in cow hide, and distillation in a Filipino still that utilizes a hollowed out tree trunk and an agave penca as a funnel. The chipper was just recently acquired in the last couple of years, as he explained that his back is getting too old for mallet and canoe crushing.  His horno was one of the more steeply walled I’ve seen; it looked almost like a well the walls were so vertical.

While we were touring, two young men arrived and began cutting and chipping their own roasted agave’s. Dan Jose explained that he rents out his palenque as he doesn’t need it for too many weeks out of the year, just during the dry season between December and March. His production is very limited; this year he only produced 600 liters.

Along with the earlier pechuga we also tried an espadin /cupreata and papalomes from this and last year. They were all great. Interestingly to me, they didn’t have as much of that lactic funk that I’ve tasted in Cuervo de Vaca mezcals coming out of Santa Maria Ixcatlán in Oaxaca. I’m looking forward to comparing the two of them when we arrive in Ixcatlan later this week 

We wrapped up the visit by buying some liters of each expression, gifting the grandkids some candy, and kites we had brought along, and then hit the road. I’m quickly noticing some of the differences between touring in the Mixteca vs. Oaxaca. One difference is that the sparsity of palenques results in long drives to get from one to the other.  The other is that they utilize a much more limited selection of agave species here.

Pictures:
Don Jose and his wife.

Don Jose’s house brand label
Cowhide fermentors, empty and filled.

Tree trunk still

Horno
Papalome agaves

Penca leaf funnel for the still

Rey Campero Espadin
- tasty, well balanced and evolves as you drink it
- melon and cucumber nose
- kind of hot on the finish, gasolina

Bozal Ensamble
- really enjoyed this one
- sweeter and enjoyable with pepper spice
- green pepper and charred tropical fruits

Bozal Tepeztate
- wild aroma that goes from floral to Elmer’s glue
- kind of hot and a bit spicy
- apples and cotton candy

We're looking for an entry level bottle for cocktails. Definitely want to be able to taste the smoke (I know smoke is not necessarily a sign of good mezcal, but for our mixing purpose it is necessary). I've narrowed down to a few options that are available in my location, all between $35-45:

Los Vecinos del Campo Espadin

Banhez Joven Espadin and Barril

Del Maguey Vida

Bozal Ensamble

Wahaka Joven

What's your rec for smoke in a cocktail but also decent quality if I wanted to sip a lil? I was leaning towards Los Vecinos but I've seen some people mention a sort of olive brine taste to it which doesn't sound great to me. Banhez is highly recommended here but perhaps too low on the smoke? Meanwhile Del Maguey Vida seems very smokey and popular to the point of there being a lot of contrarians dismissing it?