Batuq Bacanora Blanco

44% ABV

Bacanora is a category of agave spirits from the state of Sonora in Northern Mexico. It was illegal to produce for most of the 20th century, only becoming legal again in 1992. It is made from the Agave Pacifica which is a genetic relative of the ubiquitous Espadin which is used to produce mezcal.

Batuq is made in the village of San Pedro de la Cueva by Rafael Encinas Molina and his son Rafael Quijada, 4th and 5th generation Vinateros. They refer to the agave as Yaquiana in that area, but it is an Agave Angustifolia known as Pacifica or Bacanora elsewhere in Sonora. They roast their agaves both in underground wood fired pits, and a wood fired autoclave. The cooked agaves are milled by hand with axes and fermented with ambient yeasts in wooden tinas for 7-12 days. It is double distilled in a stainless steel and copper still that was made by the Vinateros at their ranch. Grassy and meaty with notes of incense smoke.