Mezcal Exploratory Trip: April 23rd, 2022
San Baltazar Guelavila, Oaxaca
I’ve been to Oaxaca several times, but never twice in two months. Oh I’m in contact with several mezcaleros, some of whom send me samples and garrafones, which I really appreciate. But there’s just nothing like going directly to the palenques!
As I mentioned in my most recent article, my friend Alex asked me some time ago if I’d take him to Oaxaca. And while I already had a trip planned with other Mezcal Maniac friends, I saw absolutely no reason why that should rule out yet another excursion.
Alex didn’t just want to experience Oaxaca either. As an accomplished video producer and director, he thought it might be cool to create an actual mini documentary about the whole mezcal palenque experience. So we had a number of preliminary brainstorming sessions, came up with a general concept for the video, Alex packed his equipment—and off we were.
Unlike my visits of the last few years, we stayed in a hotel smack-dab in centro, near everything. That was actually one of the best parts of the trip. Zipping to the mercado, zig-zagging from bar to restaurant to art gallery to bar to bar to bar… Downtown Oaxaca is one of my favorite places in the world to be. Soon I’ll try to write an article specifically focused on that.
I’ve been fortunate enough to find a number of good guides in Oaxaca, but this time I had in mind primarily where I wanted to go. I wished to return to some of the very first palenques I’d been to, which included that of Daniel and Cosme Hernández, Jr. in San Baltazar Guelavila, but also that of Hermogenes Vasquez García in Logoche. There were others too. But in order for this to be a real adventure I’d have to be open to other palenques as well.
My point is that I didn’t feel we really needed a “guide” per se, but essentially a driver. And yet how nice would it be to find a driver who a also knew of some spots along the way. After the February trip, Ruben Vasquez messaged me on social media, explaining that he was familiar with some of the places I wanted to go and offering to drive us. Done deal. But for the first couple of days of our trip Ruben wasn’t feeling well; so he set us up with yet another driver familiar with the area, Christian Rivera.
Christian was a trip! A native Oaxacan—but one who had lived in the US for 20 years previously, his enthusiastic comments and exclamations were very frequently accented with a “Bro!” or “Dude!” :-) With a little help from Google Maps, he had no trouble getting us where we wanted to go and then some.
First Stop: Placido’s Palenque
I’ve written before about my friend Placido Hernández Hernández. He’s only about a 30 minute drive from centro right on the highway. Yes, I’d just seen him in February, but that flipping Tepextate was too good not to buy more from him, and this way I’d save him a trip to Castores, the shipping company.
Señor Placido was characteristically congenial, taking us throughout his palenque and giving Alex some good ideas of what to shoot. His daughter had recently spearheaded the production of a small amount of ensamble. (Which agaves exactly I’ve forgotten.) But BROTHER was it delicious! What a way to start the day! He also brought out the Tepextate I’d come for, found a garrafon for me and filled it.
On Days 2 and 3 Alex’s drone just wouldn’t work, but on Day 1 it was good to go; so he took lots of beautiful aerial footage of our time there. Only problem? That drone pissed off Placido’s dog something fierce! (see below)
Alex got plenty of footage: the horno, the tahona, the fermentation tinas (vats), the alambique (still) and the beautiful fields of Espadín.
And we hadn’t even had breakfast yet. More on that later.
But a visit to Placido isn’t complete without a little song! So he grabbed his guitar and gave us a few different tunes, sometimes in Espańol, sometimes in Zapotec. :-)
So we packed up the Tepextate, said our goodbyes to Placido and his family and scooted in the direction of San Baltazar Guelavila.
First: Breakfast
Christian had told us he and Ruben loved a certain spot outside of town where they made the best empanadas.
Hmm. This was sounding familiar.
Seven years ago, when my original mezcal guru Job was also taking me to San Baltazar Guelavila, he made sure we stopped at an empanada place as well. But you know… It couldn’t be the same place, could it?
It could.
I’m 95% sure this is the same roadside place we went to back then; except we’d gone earlier at that time, and the lady in charge commissioned us to fan the flames of her grill to keep it going at that hour. These empanadas are not like any I’d ever had. Those I’ve come upon have always been smaller. These? Gigantic!
Then, fortified by our breakfast, we hopped back into the SUV and continued to our destination.
San Baltazar Guelavila
I was geeked to see Cosme and Daniel again, but on our way we happened to notice another palenque where it appeared they were about to cook. One never knows when one might find a maestro cooking in the horno, so I asked Christian to turn around and go back. Maybe they wouldn’t mind if we got some footage. And of course they didn’t mind, openly welcoming us.
As it turns out, the piñas were not yet in the horno; so the fire was going, the rocks were covering it very well, but they were apparently letting it get to a higher temperature before tossing the agaves in there.
The maestro’s name was Miguel García. Would it have ever occurred to me that I might know of this man—or that there might be a familial connection between he and another maestro with the last name García? Of course not. García is one of maybe 6 or 7 surnames that are wildly common in this region. But he asked us who else we planned to see in the area on our trip.
I mentioned that on Monday I wanted to go see Gelacio García Cruz and his son Ulises who make a killer Espadín and the best Espadín Capon I have ever had. He smiled, but wanted to make sure we had the name right. Believe it or not, in this region there is both a maestro named Gelacio García Cruz AND Gelacio Cruz García! Jajaja. But when I confirmed it was the former he smiled wider. It turns out Miguel is in fact the son of Gelacio and the brother of Ulises!
His wife and kids were there, and they let us taste their fine Espadín. It was very good, so I bought 2 bottles of it. He was very happy that he’d recently sold his first large distillation of Espadín to someone in California, USA. We gave him our congratulations and thanks; then headed out, Alex having gotten some good video.
Daniel & Cosme Hernández, Jr.
The map locator we’d been given was not precise, but within 20 minutes or so we found it: the very first palenque I ever visited back in 2015. But as we pulled up I was disoriented. This bore no resemblance to where I’d been back then. I decided they’d moved it. But I was wrong.
Daniel and Cosme, Jr’s palenque is now one of those used by Convite Mezcal, and how they have seemingly prospered from this relationship! I realized it WAS the same palenque, but it had been built up so much from 7 years ago that it was hard to recognize. The position of the horno and two of the stills were the same, but now they had a total of 6 stills, there had been many impressive renovations and while on my previous visit only Daniel and Cosme were present, this time there were lots of helpers all over the place—including their brother Pedro. They even had a little pavilion where I met Cosme’s wife and sons. Below is a video pan of everything.
As was the case previously, these guys wasted no time getting to the pouring. I had an excellent Espadín, a Tobalá that was pretty good, but then came (DUN DUN DUNNNN) possibly the most fantastic Jabalí I’ve ever experienced. Also possibly it’s because it was full strength, not normally how they offer it to folks. Daniel told me it was around 55%, but when I got it home I discovered it was actually 62%! I don’t need a mezcal that high grado, but, buddy, sometimes it really enhances the magic! Believe me: this one was not inexpensive either, but it was just so beautiful and I felt moved to reestablish the relationship again.
It’s not as if these maestros need guys like me much; they’re obviously knocking it out of the park with their mezcal. In addition to working with Convite, I believe some of their brothers in the area still work with Alipus. That said, as I counted out the last of the cash into Daniel’s hand for what may be the most expensive distillation I’ve ever bought, he took a beat and without raising his head followed it up with a single word: “Chingón!”
Then they asked me if I’d like to try some of their latest Coyote. Coyote?! Of course! How could I forget? It was the very first mezcal I fell in love with 8 years prior, plus it was made by them! And this one tasted exactly as I had remembered it. It was soooo good I thought about changing my purchase, but it was too late. They had both already started filling up my garrafon. And now that I have it home and have sipped it, it was NOT a bad decision.
Perhaps wishing to express their appreciation in return, they wanted to send me home with a little gift of Coyote, but had no smaller containers. So they asked if we had any empty water bottles in our vehicle. And we did! We pulled out 4, but they kept urging us to find more. I believe we ended up with 6 little empty, plastic water bottles from our vehicle filled with the Coyote! I guess it was about 1.7 to 2 liters, and I’m saving it for ME.
Cosme’s default facial expression makes him seem like a pretty serious guy, but as I first walked up to him his face blossomed into a big grin. He noticed that, unlike my visit of 7 years ago, I can now speak a little Spanish. (A little.) He also recalled that I was a voice talent by trade and kept asking me how it might sound if I recorded a commercial for their palenque. I thought he was just joking around, but he kept pressing me. So although it seemed a bit cheesy, I took a moment and came out with this in full-scale announcer style…
“The Hernández Family of San Baltazar Guelavila! Five generations of maestros making the most magnificent mezcal in Oaxaca!”
Cosme got a kick out of it and chortled; the others just shot uncomfortable glances in our direction. :-/
This visit was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. It was great to be right there where my love of Oaxacan mezcal palenques had begun. It was great to see how they’d prospered. And it was just a freaking blessing to drink their mezcal!
Salomón Salvador Cruz
We had a bit of time, and Ruben had suggested we stop in to see another mezcalero he was familiar with. So Christian headed straight there. Salomón Salvador Cruz is an older gentleman who has been making mezcal for many years. There was a great collection of his family members of all generations there this day, and they were happy to let us sip.
One of his specialties is a mezcal infused with something. Err... You’d think I could remember what it was, wouldn’t you? Ay, ay, ay… I really need to take better notes when I’m drinking in the campo—especially toward the end of the day. I thought we were told they were seeds, but I did find the below photo on my phone…
Are those little peppers? Fruits? I recall them telling us, but I just can’t remember damnit. In any case, the infusions were nice, but to this day I’ve not found any flavored or infused mezcal that I liked enough to acquire in any quantity. That said, he had a very, very lovely Madrecuixe! So I bought a bit of that, and now that it’s home I realize it’s even better than I thought at the time.
Ending the Day
It wasn’t too late, so after Christian dropped us off at Hotel Abu in centro, Alex and I had plenty of time to bop around centro; so that we did.
I may have mentioned this before, but although Alex enjoys good mezcal, he avoids drinking much. Yet he was so enamored with some of the mezcales we’d sampled that day, and was already stoked by the palenque experiences and the amazing video he was able to get. Here and there, whether at a palenque or even in the vehicle, he’d turn the camera on me and have me explain where we were going and what we hoped to find, adding some additional color along the way. He was certainly taking our project very seriously.
Next up: Day 2 in Logoche, Miahuatlán!
So how much was that jabali???!!