elements table
Maestro Mezcaleros
Luis Arellanes Cruz + Rufino Felipe Martinez
In the zone of Santa Catarina Minas Oaxaca, you will find the Arellanes Family crafting up some very high quality & experimental distillates. The family business is ran by Maestro Mezcalero Luis Arellanes Cruz alongside his Uncle Rufino who is a 3rd generation master and very respected man in the area.
Agave:
In Luis & Rufinos' 3 agave ensemble, the master distillers began by harvesting mature agave espadin, a varietal that takes 5 to 8 years to develop as well as semi-wild Arroqueno (a. americana) & Tobasiche (a. Karwinskii) which can take 8-20yrs to mature.
Roast:
After shaving the agave hearts to its core, Luis & Rufino roasted them below ground in an earthen oven for 8-10 days. The oven was fueled by mesquite wood, atop volcanic rocks & covered with soil.
Milling and Fermentation:
Don Rufino & Luis mills the cooked agave by hand using large wooden mallets. The duo & team then ferments the crushed agave with local spring water in cypress wood vats which could take anywhere from 3-5 days to reach the desired sugar content.
Distillation:
Luneta's Arroqueno + Tobasiche + Espadin was distilled two times in a clay pot still heated over a carefully tended fire.
Cut:
The hearts, heads and tails are then mix to yield a balanced blend of 52.2% abv.