Bicuixe 2019 | Paula Aquino Sánchez | Summer 2020 Release | BCXPAS1903 | 54 Bottles
Paula works the family palenque alongside her husband, Hermógenes, and their teenage son, Jorge, where most productions are a collective effort. Once or twice a year, however, Paula will harvest both cultivated and wild agave from inherited family lands and make a batch entirely on her own. These small lotes are pure expressions of her love for the craft, the campo, and the consummation of generations of knowledge. Paula has become a madrina to us, so after many years, we are thrilled to share this special bottling through our friends at PM Spirits.
Selecting approximately 300 Bicuixe plants from a red and black earthen parcel scattered with red copal trees, Paula gathered enough ripe maguey to fill two and a half 1,200L capacity Montezuma cypress sabino wood fermentation vats. The agave was rested for nearly two weeks before the piñas were roasted with mesquite wood and recently gathered piedra azul river rocks that can withstand the heat of the oven without crumbling or bursting. Left cooking and covered for a week, the maguey was then uncovered and left to rest for 10 days. Having been well cooked, the agave fibers asked for a two-day dry-fermentation before alerting Paula to their need for water. After adding equal parts of water to the sharp-smelling must in each tank, the guarape was left to ferment for eight additional days. Twice distilled in copper pots, Paula composed this 185-liter batch with select sections of the resaque, adjusting with the lower proof liquid until she was happy with the taste, aromas, and presence of a cordón cerrado.