Tepextate | November 2020 | Aniceto García | TEPANI2011 | Spring 2021 Mezcalistas Release | 36 bottles

This extra special, 36-bottle release is a result of collaborative efforts and friendship between NETA and Mezcalistas since 2014. After all this time, we are all elated to be able to offer up this small batch of Tepextate from Aniceto García of San Luis Amatlán, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca to our community of friends in supporters in California. Like everything he makes, it was mashed by hand, fermented with spring water, and distilled in a 250L copper pot with a refrescadera.

At the first Mexico in a Bottle event in San Francisco in September 2014, Max Rosenstock and NETA co-founder Mike Whipple, were spotted sneaking pours from a bottle of Tepextate from Aniceto and were quickly introduced to Susan Coss, a co-founder of Mezcalistas and co-organizer of the event.  Instead of tossing them out, Susan extended an olive branch in the form of a copita and the two let Aniceto’s Tepextate break the ice. At the time, the Stateside mezcal scene was nascent, and the comradery at Mexico in a Bottle made the Bay Area feel like a new focal point of appreciation for agave spirits, and for us, the center of a new community of people that have become dear friends over the last decade. Since that moment, the team at Mezcalistas has been tremendously supportive of our efforts, and in many senses, is largely responsible for helping us create a space in the Bay Area and give NETA its first opportunities. In selecting this batch with Mezcalistas, we celebrate everything that it has taken all of us, and many of you, to get these few bottles to California. 

In preparing this batch, Aniceto selected 25 Tepextate plants he had been monitoring over the last number of years. Unlike some other folks, Aniceto harvests Tepextate en guía that has matured but has not yet started to shoot it flowering stalk. Through the accumulation of generations of knowledge and nearly 50 years of hands-on experience, he knows that this agave is to be worked differently than other species in order to extract a maximum amount of aromas, flavors, and overall yield.  Once cooked, he knows that Tepextate must be processed quickly, unlike most other agaves. As soon as the piñas are cool enough to touch, they are moved to a wooden chopping block, and split into smaller chunks with a machete. Aniceto uses a wooden mallet known as a mazo to macerate the cooked agave before immediately transferring the fibers and juices into a Monztezuma cypress sabino wood fermentation vat. Dry fermentation for Tepextate, according to the recipe, is never longer than 24 hours, and once water is added, the mash is pulled in 48-42 hours, after careful monitoring, and well before all the sugars have been converted to alcohol. If it sounds odd, well, the proof is in the glass, so to speak.

Aniceto’s particular distillation style is also quite unique. He uses the same materials and techniques shown to him by his grandfather: a copper boiler pot and cap, fitted with a refrescadera cooling jacket. Unlike some other methods in the vicinity, Aniceto fills the refrescadera three times in each round of distillation. A select cut of high proof liquid from this first round, which he refers to as shishe macizo, is separated and used to lower the final alcohol content of the heads and hearts cuts selected from the rectification in the second distillation. To complete this 40L carga, as this quantity is known, used about a liter and a half of shishe macizo to combine with a mix of about 38.5L of puntas and corazón, the perfect amount to create a gorgeous bouquet of aromas, and display a perfect cordon cerrado of bubbles when put to the test. Distillation was finished in the hours between October 31 and November 1, during the stretch of time observed as Día de Muertos. As such, around 10L (as well as a whole batch of Tobalá) were separated and kept for Aniceto’s own use for himself and his community over those celebratory days.

 Tío Cheto makes only a few hundred liters a year, so it is only through our long-standing relationship that we are able to access a few batches every year. For those who have been following us since the beginning, this Tepextate should trigger some old memories. For newcomers, we hope it provides some guidance into a deeper understanding of production styles, refrescadera recipes, the expressiveness of the maguey, and the skill of its maker.