Destilado de Agave, Cenizo, 'Nueva Leon'

• Destilado de agave produced in Santiago, Nuevo Léon, Mexico
• Maestro Destilador Jorge Torres
• 100% Cenizo (Agave asperrima)
• Cooked in an underground conical earthen oven
• Milled by hand using a wooden mallet (mazo)
• Open-air fermented using pulque from Agave gentryi
• Double distilled in copper pot stills
• Adjusted using heads and tails
• Label and wax color may vary batch to batch
• 51% ABV (ABV may vary batch to batch)

In the cold mountains of Santiago, a few hours outside of Monterrey in the state of Nuevo León, maestro mezcalero Jorge Torres distills one of the most idiosyncratic mezcales you’ll ever try. Due to the colder climate, coupled with water restrictions in the region’s natural preserve, Jorge uses a large amount of pulque (the milky white “wine” made from the sap or nectar of the agave) in place of water to ferment the roasted agave for his spirit. In this case, the pulque comes entirely from the rare Agave gentryi.

While the colloquial word cenizo (meaning “ash,” or “ashen”) can today only be used in certified mezcales made with Agave durangensis (endemic to Durango), the term has historically been used far more widely across the country to describe agaves whose pencas (leaves) have developed a grey or ashen tint. As a result, among uncertified agave spirits, the name can denote a wide array of different maguey. This is the first batch of Cenizo we’ve seen bottled from the diminutive and feisty Agave asperrima, which is distilled primarily in Northern Mexico and is known for its rough, sandpaper-like skin and challenging harvest.

This batch is, of course, also the first time we’ve seen Agave asperrima from Jorge and family, and marks just the third batch we’ve carried from the maestro using a variety other than his benchmark Castilla (Agave americana)—an extremely exciting, and extremely unique release from Lamata!