Wild Cupreate (750 ml)

Agave cupreata — known locally as papalometl — grows wild across the rugged highland terrain of Oaxaca, taking 12–20 years to reach maturity before a single harvest. Mayalen sources these plants from uncultivated land, meaning no two batches draw from identical populations of agave, and the producer cannot replant what is taken.

The highland sites where cupreata thrives sit at significant elevation, with thin, rocky soils that stress the plant into concentrating sugars and mineral compounds over its long growth cycle. That slow accumulation translates directly into a mezcal of unusual density and savory complexity.

Production follows traditional Oaxacan method: piñas are roasted in an earthen pit lined with volcanic rock, then crushed and fermented open-air in wooden vats using only ambient wild yeast — a process that introduces local microflora and extends fermentation unpredictably. Double distillation is carried out in clay pot stills (olla de barro), which soften the distillate differently than copper and preserve earthy, mineral texture.

What separates this expression is the species itself: cupreata is rarely bottled as a single-varietal mezcal outside its native Guerrero range, making an Oaxacan-sourced wild expression genuinely uncommon in the category. Bottled unaged to preserve the raw terroir signature of the wild plant.