Mal Bien - Quinceanera Espadin by Felipe y Ageo Cortes

MAL BIEN - Quinceanera Espadin by Felipe y Ageo Cortes

Distilled in Oaxaca, Mexico

Mengolí de Morelos, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca 0410FC,

49.5%, 1,266 bottles, April, 2010

PRODUCTION OVENS: 9 ton pit, 5 ton pit

COOK TIME: 8-10 Days

WOOD: encino, yegareche

REST: tepextate and tobalá are milled immediately, others rest 5-7 Days

MILL: tahona

FERM TANKS: sabino

WATER: well

FERM. TIME: 3-8 days

DISTILLATIONS: two

STILLS: two copper alambiques con refrescadera (275L, 500L)

ADJUSTMENT: puntas y colas Distilled in 2010, this large batch spent 15+ years resting in a giant “flex tank” tucked in a corner of Felipe’s bedroom.

Fans of Agave Mixtape may remember tasting a sample back in 2022, when it was a spritely 12 years old, but the other 950 liters remained en cámara until it being bottled in September, 2025. Felipe and his son Ageo are the 3rd and 4th generations of the Cortes family to produce mezcal in the Miahuatlán district of Oaxaca, an area famous for producing some of the best mezcal in Mexico. They are related to the neighboring Ramos family via Felipe’s wife (Ageo’s Mother).

More about the brand: Since 2016, the Mal Bien team has been traveling Mexico, driving off the map and into mountains filled with treacherous roads, police officers of questionable moral character, feral dogs, indigenous languages, narcos, ancient relics, machete wielding protestors, insect based meals, mudslides, blockades, corrupt politicians, and many of the world's kindest, funniest, most brilliant people. In addition to some hard to believe stories, the result has been a bounty of relationships with the country's best distillers, whose work we are excited to share with you.People in Mexico have been fermenting and distilling agave since long before there was a Mexico. Conservative estimates put the first destilados between 400-450 years ago, while others have argued that indigenous people developed the technology even before the Spanish conquest. Whenever the first batch was cooked up, by the mid-1600s, mezcal was being widely produced throughout what is now Mexico. Since then, it has played an important role in social and religious traditions, despite being repeatedly outlawed at various points by every ruling government until the mid-1990s. As it is popularly thought of in Mexico, “mezcal” simply means any distilled spirit made from any agave. It’s a broad category, like saying wine or beer. Under the umbrella of mezcal, there are many smaller classes and types distinguished by various combinations of geography, species of plant, and equipment being used; much as we understand the differences between say, a pinot noir from Burgundy and one from Russian River Valley. The most famous of these styles of mezcal is of course tequila, named for the town in Jalisco where it originated, which, for a variety of reasons, has eclipsed the rest of the agave spirits category over the last 140 years. Whatever your feelings about tequila, it is by its legal definition a relatively industrial product with a relatively narrow range of flavors and a limited sense of terroir. Since ending the formal ban in the 1990s, the Mexican Government has applied a controversial definition of mezcal that is much more limited than what the category has historically and popularly included. For this reason, some of the best mezcales being produced today are not allowed to write "mezcal" on their label and must use the phrase "destilado de agave" or "aguardiente de agave" for a product that is equally traditional if not more so.