Oaxacan Futures — Miahuatlan
Back in late 2010, my wife and I were drinking at the Los Amantes tasting room. It went by a different name then -- maybe Mezcaleria Oaxaca? And it was so much more than just a tasting room for Los Amantes -- they had a broad and beautiful selection of agave spirits from all over Oaxaca. It was a great place to drink, and we never missed it. The man running the show was Leon Lory Langle. Leon did us a great kindness that evening in 2010. As we were preparing to leave, he pointed us to a new mezcaleria called La Mezcaloteca. It was only a couple months old at that point, and what a mark it would come to leave, on me personally and on the trajectory of mezcal consumption.
Much of what I know about agave spirits I know from Marco Ochoa, the co-founder of Mezcaloteca. He started educating me that evening in 2010 and continues to, whenever we aren't separated by a pandemic. He's left Mezcaloteca since, and has started both a tour business called Mezcouting as well as a brand of agave spirits called Destileria Fantasma, both of which should be on your radar if you're on a page like this. And what is this page, and what does Marco have to do with it? Well...
For years Marco would share with me the heritage agave spirits of his uncles, Felipe Cortes and Victor Ramos, and would invite me to come meet them in Miahuatlan. And why it took years for me to accept his kind offer, I still don't know. But when I did ... Felipe and Victor changed how I look at the world of agave spirits in Oaxaca.
One of the greatest epiphanies I had was that a number of the spirits I loved that I thought had come from these wizened old men of maguey had actually come from their sons, Ageo and Emanuel, respectively. You didn't have to do this for fifty years to make great spirits -- it was just as good if you were trained by someone who had been doing it for decades, who was themselves trained by someone who had been doing it for decades, who had been ... well, you get the picture.
And that brings us to Ageo Cortes and Emanuel Ramos. These young fathers make their living making heritage agave spirits. But there's little living to be made now that the world has shut down. So we're trying to help Ageo and Emanuel with this futures idea: You pay them now, directly, via PayPal, for their agave spirits. Then you head down to Oaxaca as soon as the pandemic breaks and you pick up your purchases. It's a gift to them, giving them money when they really need it. And it's a gift to you, in the form of a promise for a trip to Oaxaca.
Ageo and Emanuel work in very similar ways: they roast their agave underground in stone-lined earthen ovens; mill using a stone wheel pulled by an ox; ferment open-air in wooden barrels; distill in wood-fired copper pot stills with a refrescadora.
After ordering, you’ll receive a receipt from PayPal that you will bring with you to Oaxaca. Then you'll need to make your way to Miahuatlan -- I can help you figure that out if you are comfortable driving, or you can hire a guide service, like Marco's Mezcouting. Also, speaking of Mezcouting, they are also offering a similar program, in which you can purchase bottles for future pick-up from a broader range of Miahuatlan mezcaleros. You can view their options here.
When you order below, unless you know what you're doing, unfortunately you will have to order each item individually. You can add multiple bottles of any one item in each purchase, but you can't just click once and order, say, three different expressions. Sorry! And when you go to pay, the top button option is if you want to pay with a PayPal account -- the bottom button allows you to use your credit card. Any questions, email me!
