This is the expression we are most excited about — and the one you will have to wait a little longer for. The Espadín Ancestral is made by Felix Ángeles, one of Oaxaca's most respected mezcaleros, working in Santa Catarina Minas using methods that have not changed in centuries.
Felix's process is ancestral in the full, legal sense of the word. The agave is pit-roasted over volcanic rock. It is crushed by mazo — hand-wielded wooden mallets, the most labour-intensive crushing method. It ferments in open-air pine vats with no added yeast. And it is distilled in clay pots — ollas de barro — the most ancient form of distillation used in mezcal production.
Felix Ángeles at his palenque in Santa Catarina Minas. Clay pot distillation produces a uniquely soft, mineral spirit.
Clay pot distillation changes everything. Where copper produces a spirit with clarity and definition, clay produces something softer, rounder, with a mineral quality that seems to come from the earth itself. The clay interacts with the vapours during distillation, absorbing certain compounds and contributing others. The result is a spirit that feels ancient — like something people have been drinking for five hundred years. Because they have.
The tasting notes are extraordinary: wet earth and light smoke on the nose, giving way to cacao, ripe cherry, and toasted nuts on the palate, with a finish that is soft and mineral where other mezcals are sharp and bright.
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"The clay remembers. Every pot Felix uses has been fired from local earth. The spirit passes through the memory of the place."
