No representation is made as to the legal rights of anyone to ship to or import into any state other than California. Without exception, our goods are sold in the State of California, and title passes at purchase to the buyer in California. So, after ordering, expect your order to arrive in 2-7 business days. We use Fedex ground shipping which deliver in 1–5 business days within the contiguous United States. Some 25 or 30 genetically different agaves can be distilled, some of them so rare that they have not been given scientific names, and the range of flavor, aroma, intensity is astonishing.Īll orders are shipped within 1-2 business days of ordering. At Germain- Robin, often called one of the world’s finest spirits, we made brandy from very good wine grapes, but they were all variants on one species, vitis vinifera : there was a stylistic uniformity. Mezcal fresh from the still is as complex and interesting and tasty as excellent brandies and whiskies after years of aging. So don’t talk to me about barley or corn or grapes. Prehispanic indigenous peoples roasted the agave to eat, drank the sap (or let it ferment into pulque), used the thorns for needles, used the leaves for roofing, used the fibers for thread, cordage, and clothing.

is instead concentrated and purified by distillation into the agave spirit: mezcal, raicilla, tequila. All the intense energy and flavorful components built up in the 8 to 15 years it takes the plant to mature, meant to be used to grow that huge stalk and produce flowers – just before it dies. The agave is the most complex and interesting plant distilled by humans. His neighbor Don Beto, who crushes his roasted agaves with mallets, creates rich distillates that are amazingly clean. The mezcals of Don Valente of San Andrés are complex and focused. San Baltazar is always soft: I can recognize their mezcals blind. Their soils, the altitude, differing wild yeasts, different ambient temperature of fermentation, and above all the individual production styles, often developed over 3 or more generations: these create distinctive mezcals. The agaves themselves have genetic differences from growing for decades in a unique part of the Oaxaca Valley. Each Alipus distiller produces highly individuated mezcals. Here’s Karina Abad talking mezcal with Don Beto and Don Valente. These agaves have to work hard to mature: no wonder their mezcals are mineral and intense. Here is espadín growing on a steep thin calcareous hillside near Santa Ana del Rio. Don Valente of San Andrés adds a little madrecuishe ( agave Karwinskii), common practice in his area of Miahuatlan.

Except for Potrero/San Miguel, where they distill semi-wild arroqueño ( agave americana), all Alipus comes from cultivated espadín ( agave angustifolia). Their Los Danzantes restaurant in Oaxaca (whose population is 48% indigenous, most of it socially and economically marginalized) is now famous.Īnsley Coale of Craft Distillers, who brought Alipus to the USA, deeply shares this motive.Īlipus comprises now nine small family distilleries (some also distill for Mezcalero). To source mezcal for their restaurants, they founded Alipus in 1997, and are largely responsible for getting mezcal accepted as a world-class spirit. They started several restaurants for integrating regional indigenous cooking into fine cuisine, sourcing ingredients from local indigenous suppliers. Three generations of the Cruz family, who distill for Alipus, in their agave fields above San Juan del Rioīrothers Jaime and Gustavo Muñoz are dedicated to bridging the profound gulf between Mexico’s colonial-derived ruling society and its millions of indigenous peoples. It will take hard work and serious intention to keep the artisans who make great mezcal from being forced into the commercialization – and the changes in how they live and work – that took the heart out of bourbon, cognac, tequila. The essence of the Alipus project : to keep artisanal mezcal authentic by protecting the way the distillers work and the way they live from the powerful forces of rapid modernization.

Alpus mezcal