Wild Agave, Wine, and Mezcal

It’s easy to think of Mexico as being a dry arid place, and in a lot of the country that is true. It also has towering mountains and deep rainforests and has the 5th largest biodiversity of any country on the planet. But getting back to the stereotypes, Mexico has the most types of cactus and most importantly the most types of agave, and it isn’t even close.

The agave genus has 208 species and the one most people know of is the Blue Agave, used for making Tequila. Next up on the list is the one everyone needs to know of, Espadin. It’s the primary agave used in making mezcal. When we first got to Oaxaca inevitably the first mezcal was had from this cultivated variety. Every place we went to had an overwhelming number of wild (silvestre) agave’s and there was always something new to try. Each new variety, each new taste was different.

The best comparison we can come up with is wine (or Pisco if more were familiar with it). Like grapes, agaves are defined not only by their species but by their terroir, and as one would expect different agaves pull diverse characteristics from their terroir. Agaves grow up and down the mountains and valleys in the nooks and crannies of macro-climates, meso-climates, and micro-climates. They grow in the desert, next to rivers, and in the forests. Some grow next to towering trees, and some grow next to nothing at all.

After quite a few rounds at the local mezcal bars, we started recognizing the agaves on the list: Arroquenos, Tobalas, Mexicanos, Cuixes, Barrils, Madrecuixes, Tobaziches, Tepeztates, and many more. There is the odd new variety to try but mostly we’d go back to ones we already had and compare them to previous notes and memories of the same varietal. Our first notes seemed defining: A Madrexuiche is powerfully herbaceous. Much as one one would write with clear clarity about how a Sauvignon Blanc tasted after only having one. But subsequent glasses of the same agave ended in different results with the flavors sometimes being similar to what we initially wrote and sometimes being entirely different.

It’s not just about the plant though. After a few visits to La Mezcaloteca, we mentioned this observation to them and they provided us with a blind tasting of 3 different bottles of Madrecuixe (a type of agave). The three were made by different members of the same family, with the same type of agave, in the same distillery, and technically the same process. They barely had any defining flavors or scents in common. While each agave plant tends towards a certain flavor, we had underestimated both the strong affect the terroir could have on the agave as well as the distiller’s role.

When it comes to distilled spirits we typically think of the process more than the raw ingredients. With mezcal this should certainly not be the case. As craft distilling returns to the USA we envision there will be more focus on the distinct qualities between similar ingredients that form the heart of the spirit and the flavors that can be brought out of them. As consumers we can help them get there by taking the time to appreciate that distilling can be as much of an art as making wine.

A great Cabernet Sauvignon will not be grown and made in Pennsylvania no matter how good the vintner, just as a great vintner will struggle to make a wine of Ugni Blanc palatable. A bad vintner won’t be making a great batch of Bordeaux even with the quality of grapes provided to them. A great wine and a great mezcal are always going to depend on the person making it. But the skill of turning the raw fruit into a final delicious beverage will always need a good, complex fruit. Drink mezcal, enjoy wine, hug your local craft distiller. But when you see a farmer, shake their hand too.

Here are 4 agave varietals that we’ve enjoyed:

• Espadin – An ancestor of the Blue Agave commonly used for tequila, this is the only fully cultivated type of agave used for mezcal (mezcal can be made from blue agave as well). It still grows in the wild quite well and produces a different characteristic as the plants have much more space. The fruit for Espadin matures in between 5 to 10 years. We find the most predominant flavor of Espadin’s to be a light grassy flavor. Work is in progress to cultivate more species of agave.
• Madrecuixe – In the family of Agave Karwinskii, our favorite name for an agave species and also the most distinctive. Most agaves grow in a large pincushion on the ground but the Karwinskii’s shoot upwards like a tree. The Madrecuixe progeny are reproduced close to the mother plants in bunches. Mezcal farmers will often uproot the young ones and transplant them leading to a semi-cultivated state for this plant that takes 13-15 years to mature. It’s one of our favorite tasting agaves and tends to have very herbaceous flavors reminiscent of gin, as do most of the Karwinskii’s.
• Tepextate (Tepeztate) – The most distinctive smelling agave by far. The nose on this agave punches you in the face, repeatedly. The aromas are powerful, heavy, untamed and are sometimes described with words like petrol or wet cement. Doesn’t sound appetizing, does it? The smell and flavor are a bit more complex than that but this is probably the least approachable agave. We’ve only found one we like, and we really really like its earthy flavors and tart scent, from Don Isaac. This plant takes over 25 years to produce a fruit, so don’t expect them to be cheap.
• Cupreata – Unlike the above three, this agave as named doesn’t grow wildly in Oaxaca (though Papalome is a close relative of Agave Cupreata and does). It’s endemic to the state of Michoacan and is the primary wild agave used for mezcal production in that state. Many more states can officially produce mezcal than tequila, and Michoacan was the most recent to be added to this list. Taking 5-15 years to mature, we find the flavors of Cupreata to always have a good amount of fruitiness to them. The smokiness that typically is associated with mezcals seems to be a bit different in them as well, taking on more of an earthy flavor than a purely smoky one.