Mezcal Exploratory Trip: Oaxaca, Santiago Matatlán, Volume 2
Dixeebe and Damajuanes
After leaving Mezcal Desde la Eternidad, René of Las Bugambilias Tours was excited to introduce us to a great little restaurant in Santiago Matatlán called Azul Adobe. He promised really great food and very agreeable prices, and that’s exactly what we found.
There was an excellent atmosphere inside Azul Adobe. Quite full of locals as well as other visitors to the area. Mark and I both got the tlayuda; he noted that the addition of fresh tomatoes on top added a pleasant dimension. Mine was excellent. Cecilia and I also tried the Chicken Mole. You just can’t beat the mole in Oaxaca!
So it was a nice stop-down before heading to our final two palenques of the day. Cecilia noticed they had some beautiful, Oaxacan style clothing for sale at the restaurant; so she looked through everything and decided on a beautiful blue top, which she wore for the rest of the day. For 8 hungry people, our food and drink bill came to 1,320 pesos, (or just over $61 USD), and that included an extra generous tip.
Dixeebe
I wasn’t sure what subheading to use for this one. The sign in front of the property reads, “Bebidas Chingonas.” Cool name! There was also a little “Guardianes del Mezcal” logo. But I think most will likely know it from their brand name, Dixeebe; so I went with that. I’ve heard this word many times over the years as an apparent replacement for “Cheers” or “Salud.” It’s a Zapotec term that I’ve heard pronounced two ways: either [deesh - BAY] or [deesh - BAY -oh]. It’s a term of reverence that means respect for the moment; it’s continued use is meant to convey gratitude for traditions and ancestors.
Now THIS was a mezcal palenque! I found the whole experience very impressive—and the mezcal just magnificent! Don Valentín Cortés is a 5th generation maestro mezcalero with 40 years of experience making it. His wife Irma Hernández also comes from a long line of mezcal producers. Many are familiar with son Asis, but children Marisol and Giovani are also part of the latest generation.
On this day we also had the assistance of son-in-law Daniel Lopez who was extremely proud and enthusiastic as he let us try their various distillations. I got a kick out of his demeanor while doing so: it was almost as if he was revealing a secret when he poured one; as if he were saying, ‘Wait till you get a load of THIS one!’ And it was easy to see why. We tried an Espadín, Cuixe, Pechuga, Coyote… And then Daniel and Valentín took us into the coolest mezcal cellar I’ve ever seen.
Here he let us try two different Tepextates and… an Arroqueño. Yes, I said it.
It was about 6 years ago when Job gifted me a small bottle of Arroqueño made by Celso García Cruz—who is now associated with Neta Spirits. You know how we so frequently say, “Mezcal cannot get any better than this”? That was one of those. You know how we also find that a mezcal tastes great one day, but not as great on another day? Yeah, well this one was ALWAYS transcendent every time I took a sip over the course of an entire year.
So I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I do believe the Arroqueño I purchased from the Dixeebe folks may be the best one I’ve had since Celso’s. A nice, big 53.5% ABV assures you won’t miss any of those flavor notes. I just realized I still have it in the plastic bottle they gave me. I think I’ll transfer it into glass tonight and savor it very, very slowly.
It was an absolute pleasure spending time at this first rate palenque, meeting Señor Valentín and Daniel, and tasting their wildly flavorful and spine-tingling mezcales.
Damajuanes
Our last palenque in Matatlán was that of Israel Perez Santiago who calls it Damajuanes. Funny. We had just learned that word in the cellar at our previous spot: Dixeebe.
From what I’ve gathered, damajuanes refer to larger glass jugs in any variety of sizes. But it appears that the term is used primarily for those hand-blown glass vessels that we often see in the approximate shape of a heart. Note the pic from Dixeebe below… We were told that, since they’re handmade, they can vary from about 15 to 17 liters in capacity.
René had introduced Israel to us as one who is often hired by other companies to help craft their brand, and that in fact he was hired by Casamigos, the brand owned by George Clooney, to do so with theirs.
There was definitely a different vibe in the air at Damajuanes. In my experience over the last several years, smaller palenques are usually family operations. Children are running here and there, mama is asking if you need anything, other relatives are often hanging around. But spending time with maestro mezcalero Israel reminded me of what it might be like hanging out with an international web hacker.
Maybe his family lives off site or was just away for awhile, but it seemed like he was single, and had built his palenque and loft as a borderline off-the-grid mezcal man-cave. His demeanor was neutral: it seemed good that we were there, but he was not about to engage in any impassioned persuasion tactics, shall we say. Jajaja. Perfectly okay with me. For good reason, I guess, he lets his mezcal do the selling.
Israel has been involved with a number of brands, but may do the most with Son de la Luna. He shared 4 or 5 with us that were quite nice. Then he brought out the snakes!
I’m guessing these things are novelties, but don’t know for certain. Does adding a scorpion or a snake to aging mezcal bring any sort of agreeable—or even detectable—flavors to it? Well I didn’t find out this trip, and Rachael actually decided to bolt pretty quickly after these surfaced! :-)
I noticed Israel had two conical hornos, and judging from his warehouse area, he may well produce a good amount of mezcal there. After trying his samples, Fred and I went in on a garrafon of Tepextate. Since returning, I’ve been doing taste tests with several friends between his Tepextate and another I acquired the following day. I think I might like the other one, but at this point it seems most I poll prefer Israel’s. It’s very good.
So that wraps up our Five Palenque Saturday in Santiago Matatlán. René brought us to some fine operations, and we drank some damn fine mezcal. The following day was reserved for a mezcalero who’s become our good friend over the past few years; so I’ll be doing a special spotlight on him soon.
I guess it’s time to say this: thanks a ton for reading my articles. In the beginning I just wanted to write a few of them that would answer questions people were always asking about mezcal. I enjoy talking about it, but sometimes I was typing the same responses over and over; so maybe I could just send links to stuff I’d already written, right? But this is now my seventeenth piece here, and we’re already closing in on eighty free subscribers. EIGHTY?! Lol. In the beginning I didn’t even know people COULD subscribe. Then the notifications started coming in!
I’m also guessing it could be irritating to those folks who’ve been involved with mezcal for 20, 30 years or more. Who’s this dork who thinks he can write about mezcal? Without feeling any need to apologize, I’ll just share that I do understand and will only say, look, I’m enjoying this, I don’t think everything I write here is necessarily the correct perspective—and I’m sure I’m getting some things wrong. If it’s not your jam, I certainly understand why you wouldn’t read it. All good.
But for anyone who loves (or even likes) artesanal mezcal, you’re still invited to meet me if you’re ever here in San Miguel de Allende. I don’t have any snake mezcal to share, but I’ve got a lot of other amazing stuff for you to sip. Let’s meet up!
I can’t wait to visit Dixeebe!!!
Dude, on your closing comments, keep doing what you are doing! I like your writing and you say what you know and what you don't. I just put up a new blog post on Dixeebe if you have not seen it on mezcalphd.com . Keep up the good work!