Agave Mixtape Volume 5 Library Release Neta / Mal Bien / Lalocura (3x200ml)

Agave Mixtape Volume 5 Library Release Neta / Mal Bien / Lalocura (3x200ml)

Each box comes with 3x 200ml bottles: one each from Lalocura, Mal Bien and Neta.

Lalocura Rainy Season Tobasiche-Espadín

Rainy Season

Aside from being incredibly delicious, Lalo’s rainy season batches bring a new dimension to our understanding of terroir in mezcal and agave spirits, specifically the 4th dimension. Most people are aware that geography and climate influence agaves and in turn spirits, but throughout the long history of mezcal and agave spirits, much less attention has been paid to the season in which the plants are harvested.

 Unlike wine grapes, for example, agave do not have to be harvested in the season when they reach maturity. Once the quiote is cut, the magueyero may leave the plant in the ground for a period of months or even years. Historically, agaves were always harvested and spirits were produced during dry months so that mezcaleros and magueyeros had time to plant crops during the rainy months. However, it’s during the rainy season that the agaves are interacting most with their environment, and (as Lalo’s rainy season experiments seem to prove) are richest in flavor.

Distilling between June and December is certainly a departure from tradition, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing.

This batch

October, 2019 was the first batch of rainy season tobasiche-espadín from Lalocura, and it’s been a revelation. So many of the other rainy season experiments have been mezclas that were less familiar to us, and for which we didn’t have much basis for comparison. Lalo’s dry season tobasiche-espadín (all the other bottles in the USA, so far) is a staple of the Lalocura lineup, and one that provides a useful starting point to understand how production season matters. 

Even at 47.97% ABV, this rainy batch has the flavors and intensity turned way up. Notes that were only slightly perceptible in dry season batches seem to present on more equal footing as the notes that dominate the standard dry batches. While it lacks some of the satin sheets texture of the dry season batches, the flavors here are so well structured that the their intensity remains very much under control.

Fans of Lalocura will be excited to learn that this batch of provided the base for the rainy season pechuga that was exclusive to Madre! Restaurants in Los Angeles.

Neta Espadín 51.5%, May 2017 Delfino & Sozimo Jarquín, La Chaga, Miahuatlán Oax.

Spirits made by the Jarquín-Aquino family are true vestiges of old miahuateco styles and flavors. From harvest to distillation, the family continues to employ techniques and recipes that many others - for a multitude of reasons - have abandoned or altered over the last couple of decades.

Despite its laborious nature, they continue to mash the agave by hand with wooden mazos and occupy a particular recipe with a refrescadera that allows them to achieve a consistently high proof mezcal with a single pass through their small copper stills. Delfino proudly recalls dabbling with and promptly rejecting the new methods of distillation that were introduced in the early ‘90s, primarily through collaborative governmental and industry initiatives. While he did walk away from these programs with the new skill set of agave propagation through bulbil cloning, he was thoroughly unimpressed with the flavors, aromas, and overall quality of the “new” mezcal that were being made through double distillation, and in many cases, with the addition of water to lower the final alcohol content. Confident in the quality and character of his craft, Delfino returned to the ways he knows best, and has not deviated since. The family harvests and cooks agave only one time a year, with processing times dictated primarily by moon cycles and ambient temperatures. As such, distillation generally begins in the final stretch of April or the first week of May, and continues through the month with an annual production of around 1200-1800L, depending on the varying quantities of the different ripe agaves available each season. Most of this is sold fairly quickly on the local market through various channels, but with the platform of Agave Mixtape, it seemed like a fun idea to share a little bit with you folks back in the States.  

The last name Jarquín is quite common among the mezcal producing villages of southern Oaxaca. The name itself is rooted in Arabic, with Moorish origins from the Iberian Peninsula. In certain communities in Miahuatlán, some attribute their original Jarquín ancestor has having descended into the valley from Zoquitlán sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century, bringing the tools and knowledge of copper distillation along with him.

Mal Bien Espadín Antonio Sonido, Pantitlán, Chilapa de Álvarez, Guerrero

Like some kind of new particle discovered by physicists, Don Antonio’s espadín wasn’t just an interesting new destilado for us to enjoy, but one that made us rethink some of our most basic ideas about espadín as a varietal. 

Around the world, most people familiar with mezcal and agave spirits are mainly drinking spirits produced in Oaxaca, so it’s no surprise that most think of espadín (A. angustifolia Haw.) as the most widely available and least expensive varietal. In 2021 Oaxaca, espadín is most definitely both of those. And while this batch is many things – savory, sweet, spiced, rich – it’s most definitely not from Oaxaca.

Don Antonio recalls first encountering espadín in Chilapa de Álvarez in 2008. Unlike papalote (A. cupreata) and zacatoro (a local variant of A. angustifolia) which have been in the region since time immemorial, the espadín seeds or hijuelos had be imported from other states. Adding to the expense, espadín plants prefer to grow on prime, flat land normally reserved for milpa crops as opposed to papalote and zacatoro which do best on hillside plots that don’t work well for corn, beans or squash. While local mezcaleros were impressed by the tales of espadín’s large size, high sugar content, and prolific cloning, the upfront costs were higher than most of Don Antonio’s neighbors were willing to invest, and so espadín developed a reputation as a “luxury” agave.

Generating 20-30 hijuelos de raiz (clones) during their 8-12 year lifespan, it’s certainly possible that the varietal will one day become as common in Guerrero as it is in many other parts of Mexico, however; with less than two generations so far, the species’ overall numbers are still nowhere close to that of papalote. Don Antonio estimates there are a few thousand espadines throughout the region, compared with many millions of papalotes.

Whatever happens with the future of espadín in Chilapa, this batch defies any Oaxaca-centric ideas about how espadín. How much are those differences attributable to the terroir of Guerrero VS Oaxaca? How much is the product of a maestro palenquero whose palate was trained on papalote? Did the cost and rarity of the agaves used in this batch earn it special attention that improved the result?

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