Destilado de Agave Espadín 'Monterrosa Family'

• Destilado de Agave produced in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca
• Maestros Mezcaleros: The Monterrosa Family
• 100% Espadín (Agave angustifolia) harvested after 6 months capón
• Cooked in traditional earthen pit oven
• Milled using traditional horse-drawn tahona made of pink cantera stone!
• Open-air fermented in cypress & pine vats (tinas) using ambient yeast and well water
• Distilled twice in traditional copper pot stills
• Rich earth, thick clay, tobacco leaf, dried herbs de Provence, salted caramel, butterscotch, taffy
• 500 liters produced
• 52% ABV (ABV may vary batch to batch)

The first batch we’ve seen from Cuish founder Felix Monterrosa and his family at their brand new palenque in Santiago Matatlán! In keeping with the goals of the brand, the family is restoring the historical methods and flavors of Oaxaca’s most prominent distilling town, preserving heritage in the face of industrialization.

Tasting Notes

When Felix Monterrosa founded the mezcaleria and subsequent brand Cuish years ago, it was in part a practice of exploring and honoring his family’s long heritage in the mezcal culture of Oaxaca. The Monterrosa family has been involved in the production and sale of mezcal for many generations; in fact, Felix founded his mezcaleria in the storefront where his parents had previously operated a mezcal expendio, a place Felix and his sister Rosalinda spent formative years.  

In 2022, Felix and Rosalinda, along with their mother, Emilia, were able to restart a family palenque of their own in Santiago Matatlán—the historic heart of mezcal production in Oaxaca—where they are focused on recapturing and preserving the traditional flavors and methods of the region’s Matatleco-style mezcal in the face of rising industrialization. Today, this is an important and challenging task. Santiago Matatlán produces more than half the mezcal exported from the state, and increased production has endangered the viability of small-scale heritage production.

This batch is the first we’ve seen exported to the US from the family palenque, and it more than meets the family’s ambition. This Espadín is a benchmark example of the local style, with rich earth and dark herbaceous notes underpinning a pronounced caramelized sweetness. A throwback that makes the heart yearn for more.

Oh, and did we mention their tahona stone mill is pink??