A worker regains his balance atop a nearly eight-foot mound of cooking agaves at a palenque owned by Del Buen Agave, a rapidly-scaling mezcal producer, in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico on January 31, 2022.
Workers rest while building a mound of rock and wood to cook agave before processing the plant into Mezcal at a palenque owned by Del Buen Agave in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico on January 31, 2022.
Maestro mezcalero Orlando Altamirano Aragón surveys his agave fields in the hills above Santa María Zoquítlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, on December 7, 2021. The Altamirano family has been making mezcal here for three generations, and Orlando Altamirano Aragón said his family owns and cultivates the land "for five hills in each direction”.
Manuel García (right) sits with his father, Maximiliano “Serafín” García Gerónimo (left) and two daughters, near the family’s palenque on the outskirts of San Dionisio Ocotopec, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 15, 2021. Manuel has made Mezcal with his father since he was a boy.
Manuel García tends to the family’s horses grazing the family’s agave fields outside of San Dionisio Ocotopec, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 15, 2021. Horses are integral to ancestral methods of mezcal making, pulling the large stone wheel that mashes agave.
Manuel García (center) moves Piñas into the back of his truck at the family’s agave fields outside of San Dionisio Ocotopec, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 15, 2021. Piñas are the heart of the agave and contain the sugars needed to make mezcal.
A worker moves bagasso, the cooked agave fibers left over from producing mezcal, from a distillation tank at a palenque in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 3, 2021. Santiago Matatlán is colloquially known as the ‘World Capital of Mezcal',’ and produces more of the spirit than any other municipality in Mexico.
Flowers and tortillas line the García family altar at their home in San Dionisio Ocotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 15, 2021.
María Elena Muñoz Ramírez makes ollas de barro, the large clay stills used to distill fermented agave into mezcal at her workshop in Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 6, 2021.
Agave fields along the road to Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico on January 31, 2022.
Maesto mezcalero Maximiliano “Serafín” García Gerónimo holds a copper dish of aerated mezcal at his palenque near San Dionisio Ocotopec, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 15, 2021. To determine the alcohol content of a batch of mezcal, maestro mezcaleros aerate the liquid by sucking it into a hollow reed and allowing it to drain into a dish. The maestro determines the alcohol content by observing the amount of time that the bubbles remain on the surface— the longer they remain, the higher the alcohol content of the mezcal.
A worker pauses while stacking Piñas at at a palenque owned by Del Buen Agave in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico on December 3, 2021.