Drinking artisanal mezcal made from wild agaves is a privilege, Vas Que Vuelas Mezcal allows us to taste the expressions of three different wild agave plant variations; Tobalá, Cuishe and Tepextate.
Mezcal is powerfully charged with history, culture, symbolism, tradition, and pride. It is used by many Mexican ethnics as traditional medicine, an apperitive and a digestive as well as a concealer of dreams and a way for meaningful conversations and relations.
Vas Que Vuelas Mezcal is part of a national movement that promotes the culture of appreciation of traditional and artisanal mezcal its philosophy is to focus on highlighting the efforts and traditional knowledge of the maestros mezcaleros and their communities and the sustainable use of local resources required to produce mezcal.
The Vas Que Vuelas Mezcal artisanal production process starts in collaboration with Guidebaldo Rodriguez, a third-generation maestro mezcalero from San Pedro Taviche, Oaxaca (small town of around 1,500 inhabitants located in the central valleys of Oaxaca in the heart of the mezcal route) goes into the nearby mountain/fields to look for agave plants that have matured between 8 to 20 years, depending on the type of agave plant, before being harvested.
Once the maestro mezcalero has found the perfectly matured agave plants, the most important part of the process, then he will harvest and cut the prickly agave leaves taking only the core of the plant, also called “piña” (it looks a bit like a peeled pineapple) and transport it to his Palenque, the place where all the process occurs. At the Palenque he cuts the “piña” in smaller pieces and throw them into a conic shaped volcanic stoned oven built into the ground to cook for a few days covered with “bagazo” (fiber and agave residuals from previous mezcal batches), leaves and soil.
Once the agave piñas have been cooked for 4 to 5 days, they are uncovered and taken out of the oven to be grinded artisanally using a large wooden hammer. This is a time consuming and labor intense activity which positively impacts the flavor of the final product.
After the agave plants have been cooked and grinded, they are placed in large wooden tubs made from Sabino or Pine and then filled with water to ferment for 12 days. After fermentation the juice is transferred to a wood heated copper still in which the distillation process occurs.
As soon as the distillation process is done, the mezcal is placed in large glass containers so it can mature for one year, after this period the mezcal is bottled and commercialized.
As a result of this elaborate and artisanal process Vas Que Vuelas looks to offer unique and sophisticated flavors with small one of a kind high quality mezcal batches while honoring the true culture of Mezcal.
