Vintage Ford Mustangs and mezcal from Matatlán, Oaxaca, make strange, conceivably dangerous bedfellows. But not so when the automobiles are simply on display, as they were the inaugural day of Matatlán’s annual fiesta honoring Santiago Apóstol. The sports, cultural and religious festivities ran July 24 - August 1, 2010, beginning with a Rosario, then a bicycle race and awards presentation, and finally a mezcal tasting – a thank you to Mustang aficionados, members of Mustang Club Oaxaca, for bringing their classic cars to town.
The event provided chemical engineer Enrique Jiménez, owner of Mezcal del Amigo brand of the popular spirit, with an opportunity to showcase his state-of-the-art production facility within the context of explaining the differences between the traditional and his modern mezcal-making process.
Brief Explanation of Mezcal and its Traditional Production
Mezcal (aka mescal) is the acoholic beverage of choice in the Mexico state of Oaxaca. And Santiago Matatlán, one of the earliest colonial villages, boasts being the World Capital of Mezcal. While a few decades ago there were 360 producers in town, the number has dwindled to about 150; still impressive, especially while driving through the “distillery district” and seeing fields of cultivated agave, billowing smoke from various stages of production, and roadside palenques as they’re called, where one can witness the age-old techniques and sample products ranging from the un-aged blanco, to añejo which has been aged in American, French or Canadian oak barrels for upwards of five years. And of course there’s gusano worm infused mezcal, as well as citrus, herbal, and fruit-flavored sweetened mezcals.
While fermentation of the juice or honey water of the agave (aka maguey) plant was known to indigenous populations of Mexico (i.e. production of pulque) long before the arrival of Europeans, the Spanish introduced distillation to indigenous groups after their arrival in The New World. Still today, customary mezcal production calls for agave being baked over firewood and rocks in an in-ground oven, then crushed using a donkey or horse dragging a multi-ton stone wheel, followed by fermenting in pine vats, and finally distilling using copper apparatus.
Enrique Jiménez Elevates Mezcal del Amigo and Matatlán to New Heights, and Illustrates the Process to Vintage Mustang Collectors
A detailed explanation of the traditional means of making mezcal, and a history of the Jiménez family’s five-generation pedigree of production, are enumerated elsewhere.
While traditional mezcal production has been a relatively environmentally friendly, sustainable living industry, it does add to depletion of Oaxaca’s forests. And it has lacked the quality control of distilled spirits produced in modern times in other parts of Mexico and further abroad. Enrique Jiménez has changed all that.
When Enrique commenced operations at his new facility, it heralded a new era in mezcal production whereby he was able to spare trees their usual fate. At the same time he became able to control temperature at both the baking and distilling stages of production. The increased sophistication of these processes fortunately has not spelled the end of many of the quaint, natural technologies such as use of a beast of burden for crushing the baked agave, and fermenting in pine tubs without chemical additives.
Enrique provided the vintage Mustang collectors with an explanation of the workings of his new palenque (mezcal factory). Some of the classic car aficionados had a basic knowledge of mezcal and its production. But they were in store for something entirely new.
The energy of choice for Enrique is diesel, not tree trunk. Rather than use an in-ground firewood oven for baking agave, he employs a diesel-fueled engine. Steam is pumped through a series of tubes beneath a grate, on top of which sits piled agave. All is housed in a temperature controlled, sealed chamber.
The baked agave continues to be crushed the traditional way, with horse, and limestone wheel. But rather than ferment the mash with the addition of water, the baked agave fiber is “washed” with water, and the fiber, once stripped of its nutritional value, is set aside. In the old method, the fiber is left in the vats with the fermenting liquid, and all is then pitched and poured into the still.
The thick liquid, devoid of fiber yet rich in sugars, is pumped into the same pine vats to ferment. After fermentation, it’s sent to the first still.
The diesel-heated still contains three chambers, the result being that the mezcal has actually been “double-distilled” once it initially descends the copper serpentine – at least according to the rules and interpretations of COMERCAM, the government regulatory body for mezcal. But Enrique goes a step further, using a second still; his product is in fact “triple-distilled.”
The process is much more energy efficient in terms of temperature control and time: the temperature at which the agave is baked can be kept constant; only the valuable liquid and not the otherwise “discarded” fiber is fermented; the still can be heated in a matter of seconds with the simple turn of a valve; and during distillation, a series of copper pipes and vessels actually pre-heats the fermented liquid awaiting its turn to be transformed into mezcal through vaporization then condensation.
Future of Mezcal del Amigo in Mexico, and Further Abroad
Enrique and family have been selling their mezcal for decades, initially under the label Mezcal del Maestro, and more recently Mezcal del Amigo. His products have been distributed for in excess of a dozen years throughout the United States and France under the labels Mezcal del Maestro, Mezcal del Amigo, Ultramarine and Herencia del Mezcalero.
Commentaries of competitors have suggested that Enrique’s new process detracts from the essence of “real” mezcal, and in particular its signature smokiness, at times approaching that of Lagavulin or Laphroaig single malt scotches. As a chemical engineer, Enrique knows better; envy and jealousy fuel the critics. If the praise heaped by the members of Mustang Club Oaxaca is any indication, within a few short years Mezcal del Amigo will grace eye-level shelves of liquor stores throughout the United States and Canada.
Alvin Starkman - Alvin Starkman runs Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast. He is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today (http://www.mexicotoday.org).
