Alipus San Andres Mezcal

Mexican workmanship in a bottle!

In the desert mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, Los Danzantes hand-harvest a blend of 12-year old agave plants by machete and roast it for three days in wood-fired pits to caramelize the natural sugars. They press grind the agave’ hearts under a mule-turned stone mill to extract the golden juices and pulp-ferment it in wooden barrels with natural, local, Oaxaca yeasts. They even transfer the yeast from batch to batch — just like the Americans are making their Whiskey with Sour Mash or fine sourdough bread — so that the best yeast from the best batches is the one that is used again and again.
 
It is an amazing, time-consuming, artistic dance of perfection. In fact, the name "Los Danzantes" translates as "The Dancers," and they have earned that name in spades. They produce a variety of fine Alipus branded Mezcal separated by the family and village that produced it and subtle differences in the blend of agave plants that make up each batch.
 
The guys at San Andres actually blend in a bit of Cuishe Agave during fermentation to add more fruit and floral spice to the flavor. This pure agave distillate is a benchmark of what Mezcal could and should be.