Tepextate 2020 | Heriberto García Sánchez | Summer 2020 Release | TPXHGB1906 | 72 Bottles
Available through PM Spirits
Heriberto has been working with agave since he was a kid, but after returning to the ranch as a young man he has dedicated himself full time to raising a family while assisting in all tasks in the campo and on the palenque. While he usually does most of the heavy lifting for his father’s productions, he does occasionally make his own batches from start to finish. This Tepextate distillate from June 2019 is a wonderful example of Heriberto’s work, and reflective of the lands and plants from which it is derived. Having previously selected around 30 capón Tepextates of various sizes, Heriberto returned to the different parcels of rocky, white, red, and purple soil to harvest and collect the maguey. The most accessible piñas were loaded directly into the truck, while others had to be harvested and carried out with the assistance of a donkey or by hand. The uncooked piñas were rested for five days and then pit roasted with mesquite wood for eight days. Partially due to its extremely low sugar content, Tepextate is never given much time to rest after it has cooled. After 48 hours, Heriberto macerated the well-cooked maguey with a machete and shredder before moving the approximately 600kg of fibers into a single sabino wood fermentation vat. 24 hours later, well water was added and the wet fermentation ran its course for six days. Twice distilled in a copper pot still over carefully monitored heat, Heriberto made three cuts in his resaque, splitting the liquid into different containers. Waiting for the right aromas and abundant presence of bubbly perlas, Heriberto composed this 60-liter batch with a precise mix of the heads, hearts, and tails.