elements table
Maestro Mezcalero
Ageo + Felipe Cortes
In the sierra sur of Oaxaca, in San Luis Amatlán, you will find the Cortes father & son duo crafting up some very high quality & experimental distillates. The family business is ran by 4th generation Maestro Mezcalero Ageo & his father Felipe on their land for the past 30 years.
Agave:
In Cortes' Destilado con Cafe, the master distillers began by harvesting mature agave espadin, a varietal that takes 5 to 8 years to develop.
Roast:
After shaving the agave hearts to its core, Ageo & Felipe roasted them below ground in an earthen oven for 8-10 days. The oven was fueled by a blend of local woods (Encino, Mesquite, Palo de Aguila & Yegareche) atop volcanic rocks, covered with soil.
Milling and Fermentation:
Don Felipe & Ageo mills the cooked agave by an Ox drawn large stone. The duo & team then ferments the crushed agave in cypress wood vats with well water which could take anywhere from 3-5 days to reach the desired sugar content.
Distillation:
Luneta's Destilado con Cafe was distilled three times.
Heated over a carefully tended fire, the fermented agave is distilled twice in a copper still with refrescadera. During the third distillation Hoja Santa, a local & traditional culinary herb, plus roasted coffee beans from Chiapas is added to the copper still.
Cut:
The hearts, heads and tails are then mix to yield a balanced blend of 48.5% abv.