The wild Cenizo agave that grows in Durango is different from the ones you would see in Oaxaca. Here the plants grow tough, a large protective fibrous pancreas that allows them the nearly decade and a half it takes to mature in the rugged environment of the Durango plateaus.

The production here at the family-run Rancho El Oro distillery follows traditional protocols with a manual harvest of the ripe plants followed by slow cooking, tahona crushing, wild yeast fermentation in open-air oak vessels, and double distillation to proof in small pot stills. The mezcal is deceptively subtle on the nose with elegant notes of lime blossoms, white peach, minerals, and pepper while the palate bursts with juicy flavors of green melons, plantains, coconut, and fresh herbs. A magical mezcal that has an ease and effortlessness to it that belies that tremendous time and labor it took to produce this singular small batch of 711 bottles.