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SIEMBRA VALLES - ANCESTRAL
From the Brand: “What did the first tequilas taste like?” This most special production is made with the most ancient, painstaking methods common to early distillers, and is more akin to traditional mezcal than present-day tequila.
Roasting: Earthen Pit. Ancestral practice is to fire wooden coals at the base of a pit, cover them with agave fibers, pile on raw agave, cover with leaves and fabric, and then bury the entire mound. After five or so days, when the trapped heat has roasted the agave, it’s all dug up and the agaves are macerated and fermented.
Mashing: Hand Maceration w. Wood Mallets
Ancestral is the only tequila in several hundred years to be hand macerated.
Tequileros bash the roasted agave with large wooden mallets for hours at a time until the sweet juices are extracted. Oak mallets impart a unique woody flavor, and no agave flavor is lost to machinery.
Fermentation: Brick – Wood – Natural
70% of the juice is ambient-yeast fermented in an oak tank with bagasse. 30% is ambient-yeast, bagasse-fermented in brick tanks. Using no added yeast or inducement ensures that this tequila has no other flavors than its environment would have allowed thousands of years ago.
Distillation: Stainless w. Copper Serpentine Filipino-Style Pine Still
The first distillation in copper and steel separates out more toxic alcohols. The second distillation, in a pine wood Filipino-style still, is focused on flavor adjustments and ABV. The wood imparts a touch of flavor, and alcohol is adjusted to above 50%.
100% Agave Tequilana Weber Azul, Single Estate Grown
Also called “Blue Agave.” Known for high sugar content, relatively fast maturity, easy cloning, and beautiful blueish spikes. Due to restrictive legislation, this is the only agave allowed in tequila production.