This special release of Tepeztate is an exciting collaboration with Argonaut Wine & Liquor in Denver, CO. With Vago Co-Founders Judah Kuper and Dylan Sloan having Colorado roots, it has always been a “home market” of sorts, with some of our biggest fans and best friends. Argonaut is no exception. We are very excited to share this special batch of 50 liters of Tepeztate from Emigdio Jarquín that we put aside to rest in glass for one year, allowing it to be designated as Madurado en Vidrio.
For our friends in New Orleans, we have got something special headed your way! A project two years in the making, we are very excited to announce this very special release in collaboration with our friends at VALS. This 100% Espadín mezcal was distilled by Tío Rey in November of 2018, then rested for six months in antique clay mezcalero cántaros that have been in Aquilino’s family for nearly 100 years. The entire 93-liter batch was then rested again in sealed glass garrafones for another year before being bottled. All 20 cases have just arrived in New Orleans and will ONLY be available to sip at VALS. We have always had a soft spot in our heart for New Orleans, and have been lucky to call many in that city our friends. The Vago family is very excited to share this special batch which combines the traditions of our original two families, Tío Rey’s and Aquilino’s, with our friends at VALS.
Our latest special release is something we have patiently been waiting for the last few years! Those that follow Mezcal Vago likely know that we have been working with maestro Joel Barriga for a while now, bottling the 100% Espadín he and his son Adán produce in the village of Hacienda Tapanala, hidden in the Oaxacan Sierra Madre del Sur. Over this time we have had several conversations with them about producing other expressions to complement their Espadín and showcase the skill of the father-son team. Well, 2020 is the year! We are very proud to announce our second Colorado-exclusive release is a wonderful ensamble of Tepeztate and Tobalá produced in January of 2020!
Mezcal Vago is proud to move to the next chapter in our story with the launch of Hijos de Aquilino. Since the passing of Aquilino earlier this year, his sons Temo and Mateo have been preparing to carry on the family tradition. Having spent their lives at Aquilino’s side, learning his methods and gaining the knowledge handed down through generations, they have spent the last few years taking on more of the distillation duties at the family palenque. With the launch of Hijos de Aquilino, Temo and Mateo are proud to work together to build on the legacy Aquilino left them.
Our friend Fran Yazp was kind enough to share some beautiful footage in Aquilino that he captured in 2014. He has put the footage together into a short documentary as part of his forthcoming Documezcal series that truly encapsulates Aquilino's balance of modesty and pride. It also shows how serene the rugged landscape is around Candelaria Yegolé. Please give him a share and a follow on YouTube!
NEW! RELEASE! ALERT!…. NEW! RELEASE! ALERT!
It has certainly been a minute since we did a special release for our good friends in California. In an effort to make up for it, we waited for something truly special, and undoubtedly, this 100% Barril en Barro from Tío Rey fits that bill. Produced in the fall of 2019, this new expression for Tío Rey was produced from what we typically would recognize as cultivated Madre Cuixe. At only 245 liters, this entire 50-case batch is currently landing on shelves and back bars in the Golden State. It is sure to be a bright spot in the summer sipping season.
Mezcal Vago’s Mexicano is a treat for connoisseurs. This mezcal has become renowned for its’ nuance and is beautiful sipped on its own. It is one of the lightest, most elegant expressions of mezcal to come out of the Vago lineup. It has a great balance of spiciness and sweetness that is distinct to the Agave Mexicano. Aquilino’s techniques highlight these characteristics from the spicy aroma through a touch of sweetness on the finish. The hints of cacao, cinnamon, and vanilla make it a perfect digestif or pairing with dessert.
Mezcal Vago is excited to share our second ever release of a rare mezcal known as Bien Picado. This savory, earthy batch of Aquilino’s mezcal was produced from 89% Espadín and 11% Mexicano Verde. This small, 139-liter batch of mezcal was produced in February of 2019. Like our first limited run of this mezcal, produced in 2012, the entire batch was sent to our good friends in the great state of Texas. At 139-liters, if you haven’t already procured yourself a bottle, you should probably pony-up to your favorite mezcalería and ask them to pour you a taste. The long, rich finish will create a memory to last until our next batch.
For the first time in over two years, Tío Rey has released a batch of pure Arroqueño en Barro. Typically, Tío Rey can only harvest a couple of ripe piñas at a time, he occasionally has enough ripening at the same time to produce a batch of pure Arroqueño. One of the all-time favorites in the Vago lineup, his last batch is still talked about in mezcalerías around the country and traded on internet message boards. While the last batch was limited to less than 92 liters, this new batch is a bit larger, with 85 cases available.
For those of you mezcal nerds that have been paying attention, we over here at Vago have been slowly expanding our ensamble selections over the past year. You are all most likely familiar with Tío Rey’s Ensamble en Barro, which we have been doing since day one. But starting with the sought-after Curry-30 batch back in 2016, we have been encouraging the mezcaleros we work with to pursue their natural instincts to experiment with blending flavors from different agave varietals into a single, complete mezcal with an intriguing and complex profile.
For the first time ever, Aquilino has released a 100% batch of beautiful Sierra Negra.
This 84-liter batch was created from only seven wild-harvested piñas, weighing 999 kilograms, each piña having an average weight of 315 pounds. They were all harvested by hand on February 3rd from the Loma de Cocoshle parcel, belonging to his brother Benito.
Mezcal Vago is excited to release our first batch of ensamble from Emigdi Jarquín. For his inaugural 170-liter batch of ensamble for Mezcal Vago, Don Emigdio selected a blend of wild Cuixe, cultivated Espadín, and wild Tepezate selected from the Chamizal and El Pochotle plots near his palenque in El Nanche, Miahuatlán (16°23'51.4"N 96°33'03.5"W).
This 49-liter release of glass-aged mezcal is a special treat bottled for our friends in the great state of Colorado. It was produced in the Spring of 2017 at Emigdio Jarquín Ramirez’ palenque in Nanche, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca (16°23'51.4"N 96°33'03.5"W) and is the newest expression in our line of post-distillation blended mezcals.
We here at Vago have always to go to the next level about not only mezcal culture but the science as well. Well, this time we decided to throw some more love to the real agave nerds out there! For the past couple of months, we have really wanted to spend some time talking about acids and how they affect your mezcal.
If you clamor long enough, and loud enough, we promise we will eventually answer! Three years after our release of the much sought-after original Tepeztate/Sierra Negra ensamble, Aquilino has finally been able to scrounge up enough rare Sierra Negra to craft a second batch of one of his hallmark mezcals.
Some of you may have noticed some recent changes to our labels. These changes are a result of the new mezcal regulations that are part of NOM 070-SCIFI-2016. NOM-070 (also known as a ¨Norma’) was put into place in April 2017 in an effort to further regulate and categorize mezcal and make it easier for the consumer to understand what they are purchasing. At Vago, we have always made consumer education and transparency a guiding principle. However, the new Norma did force us to make some changes to our label design. We would also like to take this opportunity to explain some of the changes to the NOM and the classifications for mezcal categories.
We were incredibly humbled by the overwhelming response to our previous batch of ensamble from Aquilino, or "Curry-30," as it became affectionately known. However, we were not anticipating the number of hearts that would be broken when people realized that it was released exclusively in the East Bay of Northern California. We decided to be a bit more democratic with our next ensamble; a triple-agave blend produced by Aquilino García López at his palenque in Candelaria Yegolé, Oaxaca (16°29'41.36"N, 96°18'38.69"W). It was produced in early summer 2017 from a 48/28/23 blend 803 kg of wild Cuixe, 472 kg of wild Tepeztate and 380 kg of cultivated Espadín, which yielded just 172 liters of explosive awesomeness.
Over the course of our travels, one of the things that people comment on the most and one of our favorite talking points is our labels. Made of 100% recycled agave fiber, or begaso, they have been designed not to distract someone in any way from what is actually inside the bottle but to be a tool to provide them with as much information as possible to truly understand and appreciate what it is they are drinking. While agave paper is by no means a new idea, having a rich cultural history in Mesoamerica that extends back thousands of years, it has seen a resurgence of late, with the recent mezcal boom and the rise of the "maker culture" of the last few years. Nor by any stretch are we the only label using this ancient technique for our labels, but we really believe the paper maker we work with, Eric Ramirez-Castellanos does an incredible job of making a simple and beautiful texture for Mezcal Vago bottles.
We are very excited to announce the newest addition to Mezcal Vago, Don Joel Barriga. Joel is Aquilino's cousin and has been distilling mezcal for many generations. His farm and palanque are part of the Hacienda Tapanala, which is about 15 kilometers northeast of and 300 meters higher than Candelaria Yegole, in the high, rolling plateaus of the Sierra Sur. Despite the difference in location, the climate and soil of Tapanala, the very beginnings of terroir, are nearly identical to the land surrounding Aquilino’s. Aquilino has been working with Joel over the last couple months to hone his technique in order to produce a style of Espadín that is very similar to his own. This will allow Aquilino to make more Elote and focus on smaller, more unique batches of mezcal.
