Prieto y Prieta
Prieto y Prieta produces Mexican whiskey using 100% endemic heirloom corn varieties and an array of cask types. Established in 2018 by Txomin Alcorta and Carlos Moreno to highlight the diversity of Oaxaca’s terroir beyond agave, Prieto y Prieta lends an exciting voice to the burgeoning subcategory of Mexican whiskey.
Txomin, who hails from Basque country, studied wine and spirits in Bordeaux and spent his post-college years in Cognac working at a cooperage before moving to Mexico and partnering with Carlos. Carlos is an industry veteran with over fifteen years of spirits experience in Oaxaca, and his familiarity with the agricultural resources of the region, as well as past experience building a spirit brand, proved the perfect match for Txomin’s understanding of spirit maturation and varying barrel types.
The duo found early success with initial whiskey batches, partnering with Michelin-starred restaurants Levadura de Olla and Criollo in Mexico City, before settling on the formula for its flagship expression: a blend of four corn varieties aged using three distinct cask types.
Production takes place in a rustic stone distillery adorned with old Oaxacan road signs and vintage metal advertisements. The grounds feature an active spring that provides the water for production, an ancestral mezcal palenque, and ceramic sculptures with tiny paths leading between decorative art installations and the production areas—all surrounded by dense foliage and small plots of young agave. Here, Maestro Destilador Oscar Manuel employs four types of heirloom Oaxacan corn to craft Prieto y Prieta whiskey; yellow and white varieties provide sweetness while red and purple corn offers earthy, umami-rich flavors. All the corn is locally sourced from ten practicing-organic farms around the state, and the ratio of the blend varies depending on any particular source’s harvest yield and profile.
The corn is roughly milled using a small mechanical hammer mill and then fermented using pitched yeast, well water from the distillery’s onsite spring, and vinasse from previous distillations. Fermentation takes place in open steel or Encino oak tanks (tinas), allowing ambient yeast interaction. Generally, each variety is individually fermented, but some low-sugar varieties may be co-fermented. The solids remain in the tinas throughout fermentation and are added to the still during distillation. The still, a small 1000-liter hybrid pot and column composed of copper and steel, is heated with steam to avoid burning the solids—which are later repurposed to make fertilizer and natural gas for the distillery—and each run produces just sixty liters of spirit!
The name Prieto y Prieta refers to the color of the aged spirit—prieto roughly translates to “dark” or “deep-colored”—which is derived from the brand’s diverse mix of barrels including new French oak from Cognac, ex–bourbon, and barrels previously used to age Mexican sherry-style fortified wine from Queretaro. Txomin also notes that in Mexico and throughout Latin America, the word “prieto” acts as a reaffirmation of identity, heritage, and pride in mestizo and indigenous roots, citing it as a “symbol of strength, authenticity, and rootedness…a celebration of the beauty found in the depth of colors, flavors, and the history of our land.”