Breaking Down Mezcal: Los Javis

I was recently asked by my friends Javier & Jaime Mateo, owners of Los Javis Mezcal to write tasting notes for the release of their new “silvestre” (wild) mezcals.  I was excited to taste the new expressions; but more so, honored beyond belief that they would ask me to write the notes for their new bottles.  One evening I sat at my dining room table and poured out the mezcals. My approach to this was a bit different.  I decided to close my eyes and smell them first. I immediately wrote down where I imagine myself to be. Each mezcal took me to a different place. I then dove in and tasted the mezcals and jotted down a bunch of note in a stream of conscious manner.

Before I get into my notes, lets look at the process Los Javis uses to make their mezcals.  Javier Mateo Sr. is married to Gloria who was born in a different village. Being that they have families in two villages, they have access to more agaves.  Oaxaca is communal and agaves are only shared with those that belong to that community. Their humble distillery ins Santiago Matatlan, Oaxaca produces mezcal in the artesenal way. They cook their agaves in stone pit on top pf stones fired by a fire from white oak and mesquite. Most pits are covered with banana or palm leaves, theirs are covered with potato sacks and dirt allowing the agaves to breathe. The cooked agaves are crushed via stone wheel powered by a mule, known as a tahona.  The juice is fermented in wooden fermenters via the use of native yeasts. They use 5 direct fired small Alembic copper pot stills to distill. The purpose of distilling in small batches Javier says, “it’s like making beans, the smaller the batch the more flavorful the beans taste”.  Everything is hand bottled and hand labeled. See the gallery at the end of this post for a look at their process.

Arroqueño 2017