Destilado de Agave Cupreata 'Antonio Sonido Tecomulapa'

• Destilado de Agave produced in Pantitlán, Guerrero
• Maestro Mezcalero Antonio Sonido Tecomulapa
• 100% Papalote (A. cupreata) harvested with 2 years capón
• Cooked in a rock-lined conical earthen oven, with Encino amarillo, white oak, and tepehuaje (leadtree); milled using a small mechanical shredder
• Fermented 5–8 days in white pine (ayacahuite) tanks with spring water
• Distilled twice in traditional copper pot stills
• Rested 1 year 3 months in glass before bottling
• Lovely fruit-forward aromas of honeydew, chamomile, candied strawberry, and roasted parsnip lead to waves of crisp minerality on the palate with leather, white chocolate, jasmine, and chalky vitamin C tablets rolling in and out, extending into a long and evolving finish; a benchmark batch.
• 162 liters produced
• 47.6% ABV

To make this plush and fruit-driven benchmark Papalote, Don Antonio used both wild agave and his own cultivated agave, harvested velilla, indicating mature agave which is cut just before the quiote can fully emerge. The agave is then castrated (capón) to redirect the plant’s sugars to the piña for a further 2 years before finally being taken to the fabrica for cooking, milling, fermenting, and distilling.

Tasting Notes

Don Antonio Sonido began distilling around 1974, at the age of 26, when he began learning from a friend who had experience as a laborer producing mezcal in the shadow of the Guerrero Sierra. They built a fabrica of their own, hidden remotely in a mountain ravine to escape persecution, and together distilled for days on end and by lamplight deep into the night.

Today, Don Antonio cultivates Papalote and Espadín with his siblings on 3 hectares of land where they also raise crops, sheep, and chicken; he distills with his son Lorenzo, 39.

To make this plush and fruit-driven mezcal, Don Antonio used both wild and his own cultivated Agave cupreata, harvested velilla, which indicates a mature agave which is cut just before the reproductive stalk (quiote) can fully emerge. The agave is then castrated (capón) to redirect the sugars in the plant to the heart (piña) for a further 2 years before finally being taken to the fabrica for cooking, milling, fermenting, and distilling.

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