In the spring of 2020, members of a small, newly formed cooperative in the village of Xochipala, Guerrero, collaborated together to distill one of the first collective batches. Together they harvested 13 tons of wild agave: 7 tons of “Ancho” (a. Cupreata), colloquially referred to as such due to its broad-leafed “penca,” and 6 tons of “Delgado” (a. Angustifolia), which earned their name for their remarkably thin leaves. After harvesting the agave and transporting them via animal to their newly constructed communal palenque, the co-op filled up their above-ground brick oven and slow-cooked agave for five days with vapor. Both species of the cooked agave were then milled together with a mechanical mill, and the resulting mash was placed in “ayacachuite” pine tanks to ferment for six days with spring water. Once it was determined that the mash had successfully fermented, the group under the direction of Jaime Bello Carreto, proceeded to double-distill it in a set of 300-liter copper alembic stills. The batch was then proofed with heads, hearts, and tails and allowed to rest in glass demijohns until the spring of 2022. 160 liters of that batch were bottled for this bottling in March 2022.
