YUKU SAVI

Yuku Savi is the work of Maestro Mezcalero Félix Macedas in San Luis Atolotitlán, a small community in the Mixteca Poblana of southern Puebla, where the Mixtec tradition of distilling agave has been passed down for generations.

Above all, Yuku Savi is a sustainability project. Pitzometl (marmorata), Mexicanito (rhodacantha) and Candelillo (karwinskii) come from semi-cultivated agaves, and Jabalí (convallis) is the only wild agave used. All are harvested only when fully mature and in amounts the land can support, so production never puts the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán biosphere at risk.

Much of the project’s effort goes back into the land: reforesting the region not only with agave, but with the native plants that are vital to its ecosystem.

Everything is still done by hand: piñas are roasted in a conical earth oven lined with volcanic stone, mashed with wooden mallets in a canoe-style mill and left to ferment spontaneously in river-stone vats with spring water. The spirit is then double distilled in an Arab-style copper still, with a traditional alcohol cut separating heads, hearts and tails, and rested six months in glass. Only about 360 bottles of each expression are made per year.

The Process

All agaves used by Yuku Savi are mature and hand-selected from the hills of the Mixteca Poblana

Agave hearts (piñas) are roasted in a conical earth oven lined with volcanic stone

After cooking, the piñas are hand-mashed with wooden mallets in a canoe-style mill

Spontaneous fermentation in river-stone vats with spring water

Double distillation in an Arab-style copper still, with a traditional alcohol cut separating heads, hearts and tails

Rested in glass for 6 months before bottling