Pulque chino | Celedonio Aquino Gutiérrez | May 2025 | PLQCLA2505 | 45.6% ABV | 24 Bottles | The Duck Inn + Bottles Up!
This remarkable batch was crafted by maestro palenquero Celedonio Aquino Gutiérrez during a hot, dry stretch between April and May 2025. Having worked with agave for nearly sixty years, Don Celedonio's craftsmanship reflects generations of inherited knowledge and decades of personal experience. Although he typically works with homegrown agaves—or wild maguey harvested on family land between April and June, at the end of the dry season—he chose this time to work with a type of agave that he neither cultivates himself nor encounters regularly in Logoche. Through a magueyero in neighboring Xitlapehua, Don Celedonio acquired six Pulque Chino piñas, some just beginning to send up their quiote and others left capón for approximately one year.
The Valley of Miahuatlán is home to many different forms of Agave americana. While sparse wild populations still exist, many have been domesticated over hundreds—and in some cases thousands—of years. These cultivars were selected for different purposes, principally fiber production or the preparation of food and beverages. Among those used for food and drink, certain forms became associated with the harvest of aguamiel and the production of pulque, giving rise to the colloquial names maguey pulquero and maguey de pulque. Others, including Arroqueño and Sierrudo (known locally as Mexicano), were cultivated specifically for spirit production.
According to producers in the region, three locally recognized forms of Pulque Chino exist. Although they share many characteristics, each displays subtle morphological differences. Curiously, not all yield aguamiel, though all exhibit the distinctive undulating texture of the pencas for which the agave is known.
The approximately 800 kg of agave was roasted, shredded, fermented with native yeasts, and twice distilled in copper pot stills. Don Celedonio composed a final yield of 80 L using heads, hearts, and a select cut of tails. Rather than working toward a predetermined proof, he relied on the aromas, flavors, and the cordón cerrado to determine when the spirit had reached its final composition. Most of the batch remained in Logoche for local sale. During a visit to the palenque in April 2026, the remaining 20 L were selected for a private bottling for our friends at The Duck Inn and Bottles Up! in Chicago.
Maguey(es): Pulque Chino (Agave americana var.)
Provenance of the maguey: Purchased from a magueyero in neighboring Xitlapehua
Producer: Celedonio Aquino Gutiérrez
Region: Logoche, San Luis Amatlán, Miahuatlán
Soil type: Red tierra colorada
Rest time after harvest: Eight days
Oven: Conical earthen oven; roasted for nine days with mesquite wood
Rest time after roasting: Five days
Maceration: Machete and shredder
Fermentation: Native yeasts; one 1,200 L Montezuma cypress (sabino) tank containing approximately 750 kg of cooked agave and 500 L of well water
Dry fermentation: 24 hours
Wet fermentation: Seven days
Distillation: Twice distilled in a copper pot still
Final composition: Heads, hearts, and a select cut of tails
Batch size: 80 L
Date of distillation: May 2025
ABV: 45.6%