Raicilla is a spirit made in Jalisco state from agaves distilled in remote areas. Raicilla is a mezcal – but not on the label, due to Mexican regulations. Raicilleros use at least nine kinds of agave, all of them wild, some with several differing local varieties. Raicilla goes way back in time; its distillation was introduced in the 1600s from the Spanish colonies in the Philippines, which resulted in the common use of the primitive Filipino double-chamber clay still.
Raicilla, Sotol, & Churique
BALAM
From Xavier Villegran, whose family has been involved with mezcal for three generations. His main focus is Raicilla de Costa, distilled in El Tuito on the mountainous Cabo Corientes peninsula south of Puerto Vallarta, where raicillero Rosalio Rodriquez has substantial hillside plantings of chico aquilar (angustifolia). Balam also produces mezcal, sotol, and the rare churique.
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BALAM Destilado de Agave Sierra del Tigre
Ancestral distillation on a Filipino still by legendary Chuy Lapian in Las Agujas (pop. 48) at 5100 ft in the Sierra del Tigre, southwest of Guadalajara. Lapian uses a masonry (brick) above-ground oven to roast wild agave inaequidens. The 23-day fermentation and single distillation to high alcohol of a single 400-bottle batch yields a raicilla of unreal focus and lactic complexity. It's BIG. Lapian has such contempt for modern production methods that he won't call his distillate raicilla. Buy this one.
750 ml / 43.8% abv
$120.00
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BALAM Raicilla Del Llano
From Juan Jesús Ariaz Lugo in San Gabriel, on the central plateau SW of Guadalajara. Agave angustifolia, the familiar espadín cultivated in Oaxaca, but tasting far more fruity and earthen, is very accessible at the lower abv. preferred by many raicilla distillers. Nicely round.
750 ml / 40% abv
$75.00
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BALAM Raicilla Extra Anejo
Every year since 2012, Rosalio has aged one barrel of rhodacantha for a year, then added it to a tank. In 2019, he filled a small barrel with the aged assemblage for a month of integration and filled 274 bottles. Rich, mellow, and deep. Truly one of a kind.
750 ml / 43% abv
$92.00
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BALAM Raicilla Sierra
From Benito Salcedo Rios in El Mosco (pop. 148), at 3200 feet in the Sierra Madre south of Mascota. Benito is an agronomist, and you can taste his feel for the plant: lechuguilla (agave Maximiliana), an agave he is cultivating for sustainability. Focused and very cleanly distilled.
750 ml / 46% abv
$75.00
LAS PERLAS de JALISCO
Raicilla Las Perlas comes from Nikhil Bahadur and 5th-generation raicillero Santigo Diaz Ramos, whom Nikhil encountered while doing business in Tequila. The taberna is near the Diaz Ramos hacienda in the small pueblo of Las Guasimos (pop. 42), located inland from the Pacific coast on the Cabo Corrientes peninsula, south of Puerto Vallarta. The agaves are roasted in an above-ground oven.
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LAS PERLAS Raicilla de Jalisco Chico Aguiar
Single small batches distilled from wild chico aguilar, usually listed as rhodacantha but in this area more likely an unclassified hybrid of wild rhodacantha and wild angustifolia. The pinas are small. It took 21 pounds of agave to make each of the 216 bottles. Focused flavors: herbaceous fruit and a sweet mineral spiciness. Very well made: worth the price. Scarce.
750 ml / 48% abv
$96.00
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LAS PERLAS Raicilla de Jalisco
The most carefully made agave spirit we know of, by Santiago Díaz Ramos near Las Guásimas, on the coast just south of Puerto Vallarta. Hand- crushed using mazos; the fermentation is 3-4 weeks. The top of the copper still is a hollow tree trunk, lending a soft moistness to the spirit: beyond ancestral. Wild and semi-wild agave angustifolia and rhodacantha harvested, distilled, and bottled one batch at a time: about 650 bottles. Fresh, clean, full-bodied, very easy to drink. Scarce
750 ml / 44% abv
$96.00
MEXICAT
Mexicat is the brainchild of Jorge Alvarez, who discovered raicilla while working in the tequila industry. He sees raicilla as the highest form of spirits distilled from agave. He helps support a massive sustainability project in the Sierra.
There is more. Each bottle has a beaded cat face, an individual handmade creation of a Huichol artist. It takes a full day to make three cat faces. Preserving traditional artisanal craftsmanship is a deliberate Mexicat goal, both by sponsoring a craft agave spirit and by providing a livelihood to Huichol artisans.
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MEXICAT 3-Pack Tasting Sampler
Affordably explore Mexicat Raicilla Sierra, Masparillo, and Sotol Artesanal in a 3 bottle taster pack. Truly excellent distillates, each from a single small batch, at very good prices. Each bottle is enough for two 1.7 oz pours. Packaged in a small wood crate; includes detailed educational cards. 3 x 100ML bottles.
3x100 ml / Var% abv
$36.00
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MEXICAT Destilado de Agave Ancestral
The very rare agave Salmiana crassispina distilled in a clay Filipino still by Maria de la Luz Martinez Ramos in remote Mexquital, San Luis Potosí. The oldest methods we have encountered: squeezing the crushed agaves by twisting them in a hammock, fermenting with pulque yeast.This is as indigenous a spirit as exists, and the most profound agave spirit we have encountered. DO NOT MISS THIS. 92 bottles only.
750 ml / 48% abv
$180.00
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MEXICAT Rare Agave Spirit (Gold): Masparillo
Distilled by hand by Don Lupe Castro in Mezquital de Oro, Zacatecas, close to tequila territory. The agave is a variant of agave Maximiliana called masparillo, a small wild agave growing at high altitudes on thin soils. Don Lupe’s stone-enclosed stills bring out a clean, focused, floral, and mineral spirit. Masparillo is uncommon. This is good stuff.
750 ml / 40% abv
$72.00
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MEXICAT Rare Agave Spirit (Silver): Manso
Another hand-distillation by Don Lupe Castro in Mezquital de Oro, Zacatecas, close to tequila territory The agave salmiana is a cultivated agave, here called manso. Don Lupe’s version is extremely well distilled: softly rich, round, citric, and spicy. Amazing price for the quality.
750 ml / 40% abv
$54.00
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MEXICAT Raicilla Sierra
Every bottle bears an individual hand-made Huichol bead cat mask; people collect them. From Mascota in the Sierra Madre Occidental, double-distilled by 4th-generation José and Benito Salceda, agronomist brothers and raicilla pioneers deeply engaged in a large sustainability project cultivating agave Maximiliana (called lechuguilla). Flavorful and soft; roasted in an above-ground oven, so there’s no smoke flavor: very clean. Double distillation tends to show a smoother side of raicilla, and the 40% abv nicely balances the intensity of the wild Maximiliana.
750 ml / 40% abv
$60.00
Sotol
SOTOL is distilled from the desert plant dasylirion wheeleri (Sotol is its Spanish name) in Durango and Chihuahua, using the same artisanal methods as for mezcal. The piña, the central core, is small and dense, not easy to harvest and prepare for distillation: the yield: one bottle per plant.
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MEXICAT Sotol Artesanal
Dasylirion Wheeleri from 4th and 5th generation distillers Norma & Bienvenido Fernandez in Madera at 6500 feet in the mountains of Western Chihuahua. Smoky, earthy, but very clean; fruity and intense; long finish: best sotol we have tasted. The Nahuatl word from which sotol derives is tzotollin, a small palm tree. There is a local belief that it means sweetness of (in) the head, and that’s certainly what this sotol is.
750 ml / 42% abv
$66.00
Churique
CHURIQUE is distilled from the small and rare agave lechugilla, a high-desert cousin of agave potatorum (the agave of mezcal tobala). It can take up to 30 years to mature.
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BALAM Churique
An unclassified wild agave, from the Chihuahuan desert, locally called lechuguilla, distilled by Bienvenido Hernandez in Madera at 6500 feet in Chihuahua. Hand-milled. Agave distillates from tough environments are intense: so is churique. Unique, mineral (chalky), appealingly slightly sour finish.
750 ml / 47% abv
$75.00