Coyote + Cucharillo | Wilfrido García Sánchez | October 2025 | ENNWGS2510 | 50.4% Alc | 78 Bottles | Mezcal Brothers + Vine Trail

This fascinating co-fermented ensamble was made using nearly equal parts by weight of cultivated Coyote and wild Cucharillo. Within its native terrain and place of distillation, this combination of maguey is perhaps exclusively found in certain areas within Miahuatlán, where both the rare hybrid Agave known as Coyote, and the local Dasylirion referrred to as Cucharillo are endemic to very particular territories. Truly expressive of the terruño, or terroir, of the region, this production also reflects the adaptations and innovations that producers have implemented in recent years. Extremely rare in the wild, the maguey Coyote has now been under cultivation from seed in Logoche since around 2016. Despite its historical usage locally of the weaving of its long and pliable leaves for ceremonial and decorative works of art, the inclusion of Cucharillo in palenque spaces began only a year later in 2017.

Wilfrido García and his family have been cultivating the maguey Coyote for close to a decade. The initial plantings, from which these agaves were grown, were found during the propagation of seed stock from Madrecuixe mother plants that were collected by Wili’s mother, Margarita, from a hillside parcel of land adjacent to her childhood rancho in neighboring Lachigüizo. In this region, the various Tobalá plants appear to cross pollinate and hybridize with different types of Agave karwinskii, particularly the distinct local type of Madrecuixe, largely thanks to the intervention of migratory bats. Previously considered the rarest of wild agaves and highly coveted for its unique aromas and flavors, Coyote is becoming increasingly more common in Logoche and surrounding villages as farmers and producers and ramped up their efforts to cultivate local varieties from seed. From a stretch of tierra negra on Llano parcel Wilfrido selected twenty piñas of capón Coyote that had their quiotes removed nearly a year prior.

Wili obtained access to the eighteen piñas of Cucharillo used in this production through a friend who lives in the nearby village of San Ildefonso Amatlán, nestled in the semi-arid foothills of the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, just to the south of Logoche. According to campesinos, these Dasylirion plants require more than 50 years to reach maturity but unlike their Agave cousins, the Cucharillo are polycarpic and can flower and reproduce multiple times over the lifespan on the plant. While also under cultivation in Logoche, we are perhaps decades away from seeing the fruit of that labor. In the meantime, the harvesting of wild Cucharillo remains the exclusive source for this plant. Do be done in responsible fashion, it requires limited extraction and the targeting of younger plants with a decent sugar content, energies that are exhausted as the plants flower and reproduce repeatedly.

With assistance from his wife, Tania, a nearly even mix by weight of the two agaves were roasted and co-fermented in two sabino wood fermentation vats. Distilling under low heat, Wilfrido composed 60 liters with a beautiful cordón cerrado at 50.4% ABV using a careful composition of select cuts of heads, hearts, and just a touch of tails.

·       Maguey(es): Coyote (Agave lyobaa) and Cucharillo (Dasylirion sp.)

·       Provenance of the maguey: Homegrown Coyote from the Llano parcel and wild Cucharillo harvested in nearby San Ildefonso Amatlán

·       Producer: Wilfrido García Sánchez

·       Region: Logoche, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca

·       Soil type: Coyote from tierra negra and Cucharillo from white and rocky tierra blanca

·       Rest time after harvest: six-eight days

·       Oven: Conical earthen pit; five days with mesquite wood

·       Rest time after oven: four days

·       Maceration: Machete and shredder

·       Fermentation: Native yeasts, two 1200L capacity Montezuma cypress sabino wood tanks each with approx. 500kg of cooked agave and 350 liters of well water

·       Dry fermentation time: 48 hours

·       Wet fermentation time: seven days

·       Distillation: 2x in copper pot stills

·       Final composition: Heads, hearts, and a high proof cut of tails (común macizo)

·       Batch size: 60L

·       Date of distillation: October 2025

·       ABV: 50.4%