Discover three select producers from our premier portfolio of hand-crafted, estate-grown Agave spirits. We’ve sought out the finest all-natural spirits from artisanal producers who offer quality, authenticity, and respect for the earth.
ArteNOM is a consortium of four tequila distillers committed to reducing their carbon footprint and their reliance on turbulent market cycles while also producing exceptional artisanal tequila with minimal intervention. Norma Official Mexicana ("NOM") denotes that the bottle is authentic tequila produced in Mexico. Each producer is assigned a number that must be displayed on the bottle.
The Vivanco family has been cultivating highland blue agave for more than a century and in the 1990s, realized their dream of establishing a distillery, which gave them creative control over the yield of their 2,000-acre agave estate. For their ArteNOM Selección de 1414, they ferment the agave mash with field-extracted wild yeast, steam roast it in brick kiln ovens, and age it for four months in American White Oak to create a rich and well-balanced tequila.
ArteNOM tequilas are additive-free and do not use diffusers in their production, which retains their unique regional characteristics and differentiates them from mass-market producers. And as an added green bonus and benefit to the land, longer growth cycles (immature agave is harvested for diffuser tequilas) means less disturbance and less impact on local biology such as the soil, pollinating insects and birds, and other creatures who inhabit their Jalisco agave fields.
On a trip to Oaxaca and in search of the producers behind an excellent Espadìn mezcal he had tasted, New York-based Michelin star chef TJ Steele found the palenque of the Jimenez Mendez family. The family was producing limited batches of outstanding, sustainably grown mezcals in the traditional regional method.
A few years later, the El Buho partnership was born, and now the company has four palenques (the name for mezcal distilleries in Oaxaca) and a dedicated production facility in Santiago Matatlán, run by the current two generations of the Jimenez Mendez family. All their agave is sourced within 51 miles.
El Buho believes that high-quality mezcal can and should be affordable while using sustainable farming and production practices. Each year they plant a minimum of 10,000 agave from seeds and root clones using organic composts and natural pesticides. Concurrently, they plant local trees and protect the animal and insect populations.
The hand-molded glass bottles are emblazoned with a drawing of “El Buho,” the owl. In Mexican culture, the owl is a spiritual messenger between the living and the dead. Look closely to see the flowers, pina, and leaves of the agave plant.
Did you know that agave is nocturnal? At night, the agave plant opens and flowers. Long-nosed bats feed from the plants and cross-pollinate the local agave varieties, increasing their genetic diversity.
Don Mateo Mezcal is the only mezcal officially labeled “Bat Friendly” in Michoacan. The Vieyra family has been making mezcal for six generations in Sierra Sur de Morelia.
Emilio Vieyra, having learned from his late father Jose Emilio, oversees production at their pesticide-free estate Rancho El Limon, which borders a natural protected pine and oak forest area of 30 hectares where the native cupreata agave plant thrives.
The Vieyra family employs traditional methods at their vinata (distillery) to create their portfolio of wild agave mezcals, all of which display their own distinctive expressions of the land.
Don Mateo’s complex mezcal de pechuga is made with agave cupreata (approximate age between 6 and 8 years) and has organoleptic notes with hints of pineapple and lime. The agave is distilled with over 20 ingredients including turkey breast and deer meat under the unique recipe of the Mezcalera María Delia Vargas, 5th generation of mezcaleros. This expression exalts the work of women within the history of mezcal and the love for family tradition.
