EL TAKE IT EASY

I spent a recent day visiting the Los Danzantes distillery in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca.

Unloading the oven. Hearts of maguey (agave) plants are roasted for five days in this oven, covered with earth. The wood here is mesquite; in even smaller villages they typically use whatever trees are local to their area (one of many reasons that mezcals have terroir variations).
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Hearts of the Espadin varietal maguey, roasted and ready to be crushed into sweet nectar
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Hector Vásquez, production manager at the palenque (mezcal production facility)
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Los Danzantes has distilled here for nine years, but there has been a palenque here for at least three generations, maybe longer. This stone for crushing agave hearts is from the previous operators of the palenque.
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The current crusher. Note that it is horse-drawn. Los Danzantes does not have its own horse, it rents one whenever it’s time to crush. I like to imagine that certain horses make better mezcal than others.
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Fermentation and distillation.
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Three days into fermentation, nectar and fiber are rising above the edge of the wooden vessel. Fermentation here is from all natural yeasts that live in the palenque, as in a Belgian brewery.
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Halfway done with fermentation, the wine is part sweet, part sour, a little bit effervescent. And tasty. However, the smokiness from slow cooking is still hidden by the sugars that remain; that won’t show until the end of fermentation.
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The still, on top. This still is used for the first distillation, a fancy Portuguese still is used for the second distillation.
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The fancy Portuguese still.
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Gas fires the stills.
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Testing for alcohol content.
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This came out around 49%. It was delicious.
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Pechgua mezcal undergoes a third distillation, with a local heritage chicken in the top of still, and local seasonal fruit in the tank. The red color comes from cochineal, a cactus insect (it looks like whitefly when it’s on the cactus paddle) that is also used to color traditional Oaxacan rugs.
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At Los Danzantes, reposado and añejo mezcals are aged in French oak, as per the guidance of premier Ensenada winemaker (and Los Danzantes partner) Hugo D’Acosta. The oak arrives at the facility new; this is compared to much tequila aging (and some mezcal aging) which often occurs in Bourbon barrels of American oak.
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Los Danzantes also offers the Alipús single-vilage mezcals, which are produced by families in their own palenques, in coordination with Hector. These mezcals are not yet available in the US, but we expect to have them next summer. You can buy them in Ensenada at La Contra if you want to try them, which I recommend.
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The entrance to Santiago Matatlán.