Climbing the rugged dirt roads high above San Dionisio Ocotepec, we discover the remote village of Las Milpas, a true example that “you don’t find Mezcal, Mezcal finds you.” Here, nestled among the cornfields overlooking rolling pastures, lies the palenque of Anastacio Cruz Antonio and his sons Rigoberto, Abel, and Pedro. Their Single Village expression is crafted by roasting ripe agave Espadin in an earthen horno carved into the granite hillside. Roasted agave is milled using a horse-drawn molino and fermented using only ambient microbes and yeasts in open-air wooden fermentation tanks and twice distilled in small copper stills. Las Milpas offers a nose of slate and minerals, balanced by tropical fruit and citrus notes, with rose petal florals, lavender, tarragon, and pea shoots, that evolves into a long and pleasantly dry finish.

Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal is a beverage to be savored. Sip it. Don’t shoot it. “Stigibeu” – a term meaning, “For Mother Earth and our ancestors” — is the traditional Zapotec gratitude invoked before sharing a ritual pour of Mezcal together