Some of the best mezcal is made by Rogelio Juan Hernández, maestro mezcalero and co-founder of Agua Mágica in Oaxaca, Mexico. He began learning the craft at the age of 13 and has since honed his skills. Hernández and his team of mezcaleros handcraft 3,000 liters of mezcal each month. They harvest and roast agave, then cook, ferment, and distill the spirit. The result is a subtle yet versatile mezcal that bartenders around the world use in cocktails or serve straight over ice.
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00:00Ah, no.
00:01No, no.
00:01No.
00:02Well, mezcal is a product that is extremely
00:05difficult to produce, and very laborious.
00:11People in Oaxaca believe it's a very mystical drink.
00:14In fact, when they talk about the effects that mezcal has,
00:19they say that mezcal makes you magical.
00:23Our mezcal master is like a chef.
00:26and he is the only one who knows exactly the formula and the proportions and how it should be.
00:32There is no one else in this world who can do what Don Rogelio does.
00:40We are in this community of San Juan del Río.
00:44We plant maguey and espadín.
00:46According to the studies, we have the best maguey in Oaxaca.
00:56It is very sweet in this area of San Juan del Río.
01:00In Oaxaca alone, we have 32 types of agave.
01:05We are at an altitude of 1,100 meters.
01:09We have an average of 7 to 8 years of maguey maturation in the community.
01:16We only use the pineapple, which contains sugar.
01:20San Juan del Río is pure agave, so you can't carry maguey on your shoulders.
01:24So we use the support of our friends, the mules here, to get it out.
01:28Here is the brave and this is the skinny.
01:35The mezcal of unique origin is made with a producer
01:38and generally the ingredients come from a single origin.
01:43San Juan del Río was established around 1612
01:47as a region that produces agave and mezcal.
01:52Today, the vast majority of mezcal comes from a mixture of hundreds of producers.
01:58What we wanted to do with our first product
02:01was to reflect the terror of San Juan del Río.
02:05When quality does not matter and prices go down,
02:08those who suffer at the end of the day are the producers.
02:13San Juan del Río, Mexico
02:19We start at four in the morning to prepare the oven.
02:24This is the essential moment.
02:30Today we are going to cover 16 tons of maguey.
02:34We are going to put in about 30 loads of firewood.
02:38We use oak.
02:44Then we put stones on top of it.
02:47We take it out of the river.
02:49The stones have to take all the heat from the firewood.
02:53All that cost, which lasts for eight years,
02:58plus labor and everything,
03:01imagine how much money we waste if we don't cook maguey.
03:08They are experiences of the family, more than anything.
03:12We are the fourth generation.
03:15It is the culture of this area, where we speak Zapotec,
03:19of an ancestral experience.
03:24In solemn events, in special moments,
03:28it is always mezcal.
03:37Mezcal means cooked agave.
03:39Any distillate that came from maguey or agave was called mezcal.
03:44Tequila was a mezcal before there were rules to call it tequila.
03:48There are different types of agaves and different techniques
03:51that give a lot of variety to the category.
04:00We have a ritual, the Zapotec culture,
04:03where we put salt, chili, mezcal.
04:06It's like having a contact with the earth,
04:09asking for permission.
04:18To break a head, you have to put in the cracks.
04:22In the center, where the heat accumulates the most,
04:25the banana trunk helps to cushion the heat
04:28so that the maguey does not burn.
04:31Many people have a very wrong perception of Mexico.
04:35When I see artisans from here,
04:37and I see artisans from Japan or France,
04:39I appreciate them the same,
04:41and I don't think the world sees it that way.
04:43I think mezcal is one of those products
04:45that helps to change those perceptions.
04:49I swear to cardio.
04:51These are the banana leaves.
04:53It helps seal the heat,
04:56and give that flavor to our mezcal.
05:00The agave mezcal is sold in granules.
05:02So it's sold as a commodity,
05:04and if it's good mezcal or bad mezcal,
05:06they pay the same price.
05:10What we want to do is to have producers like Don Rogelio,
05:13who are very talented,
05:15who make a very special product,
05:17and that people recognize and pay those prices.
05:21The maguey is cooked for 24 hours.
05:23On the third day, we uncover it.
05:27This is the maguey sanjuanero.
05:31It reaches up to 40-42 degrees of sugar.
05:37It's very sweet.
05:39Honey.
05:42My family has been working on this for a long time.
05:47I learned how to do this work very well when I was 13 or 14.
05:52I learned how to do this work very well.
05:55My desire was also to make my own palenque.
06:00At that time, there weren't many opportunities in the community.
06:04I had to emigrate.
06:06So I went to the United States for 18 years.
06:13We lived in Los Angeles.
06:15My father went to work at 6 a.m. and came back at night.
06:19We arrived in Mexico in 2007.
06:22That's when I became friends with my father.
06:25We came to Palenque to get to know each other better.
06:29He told me about his childhood.
06:32This is happiness for me.
06:35This comes from generation to generation.
06:40Julio learned everything.
06:42Sometimes he even teaches me new things.
06:47All these guys play basketball.
06:50They are training here.
06:55The adventurers.
06:57There are many battles here with the mezcal.
07:00Strong people want strong people.
07:03They want strong people.
07:07They want to hold on to their jobs.
07:11The whole town brings out mezcal.
07:14San Juan de Rio has a reputation for bringing out the best mezcal in the region.
07:20At every party, at every wedding,
07:23everyone brings their own mezcal.
07:26It's hard work, but it's fun when you're with your friends.
07:33After this, we leave it for a day or two for the maguey to cool down.
07:38Then we take it to the mill.
07:45We're going to mill a ton of maguey.
07:50This is the cantera.
07:52The mill has to constantly pull it.
07:56When a sauce is made in molcajete, it has an exquisite flavor.
08:01This is all handmade.
08:04That's why the flavor of the mezcal we produce here in Palenque is unique.
08:14Oaxaca is one of the richest places in Mexico,
08:18but financially, it's one of the poorest.
08:21Most mezcal makers are born with land,
08:24but they don't have capital.
08:27We're trying to support them financially
08:31so they can buy the agave.
08:34They produce mezcal,
08:36and we pay them a higher price for the quality.
08:40We see ourselves as sports agents.
08:43We'd love to identify LeBron James or Michael Jordans
08:48who are out there making mezcal
08:51and support them in everything we can do
08:53so they can focus on what's good,
08:56which is the art of making mezcal.
09:01This is my job.
09:04I make the tins.
09:06This step is very important.
09:08Without the formulation, fermentation is impossible.
09:13You have to crush it well
09:16to get rid of all the sugar
09:19and leave the pure fiber.
09:22I feel like a chef.
09:26As a result of many years,
09:29you fall in love with this job.
09:34Many problems have arisen in this industry.
09:38We don't have a lot of students,
09:41but they come and sign the contract.
09:44We sign it without reading it,
09:47without understanding what we're signing.
09:50They come to do a business
09:53where we've been slaves in our own lands.
10:02This tin has eight days of fermentation.
10:05The crust is darker and drier.
10:09This is the famous tepache.
10:12It doesn't have sugar anymore.
10:14What we have is the taste of alcohol.
10:17And with that, we start the distillation process.
10:23One day, we ran out of gas.
10:26I suddenly saw a turn with a lot of agave.
10:29He told us,
10:30Hey, you know I make mezcal?
10:32And he's my sample.
10:35We got together with 150 producers in Oaxaca.
10:38When we started doing the blind tastings,
10:41everyone would go back to Mr. Rogelio's mezcal.
10:46We use the same dough that comes out of the tins
10:50to seal the mortar.
10:53We don't waste anything.
10:56The mortar will help us conduct the vapors.
10:59When the vapors come here,
11:02which are the alcohol vapors,
11:04when we touch it with cold water,
11:06it will condense and the liquid will come out.
11:09In the first distillation,
11:11it has about 30 degrees of alcohol.
11:13That's why we do a second distillation or refining.
11:17And now we get what mezcal is.
11:23You make your first cut,
11:25you remove the head of the mezcal,
11:27and then you start grabbing the body,
11:29which is the mezcal itself.
11:33Because of how we see the pearls in the jar,
11:36we know if it still has more alcohol or not.
11:40The flavor of each mezcal
11:42is the touch that each mezcal master gives it.
11:45I give it my touch,
11:47so that I know better than the boss here.
11:50So I keep perfecting that.
11:5390% of what comes out is the flavor.
11:55I still don't give it, but there I go.
11:58This work is very good,
12:00because we are giving opportunities to young people.
12:05People don't immigrate as much
12:08if we have enough work in the community.
12:11That is also the reason that pushes us to do this.
12:19We produce between 2,000 and 3,000 liters a month
12:24to be able to maintain the quality we want.
12:27That luna shape that you see in our bottle
12:30was a container that was used hundreds of years ago
12:33to store mezcal.
12:37We really wanted to maintain the essence of Oaxaca,
12:40to have that tension between something that was very traditional
12:44but felt modern at the same time.
12:47Oaxaca, Mexico
12:55I was inspired by the versatility of mezcal.
12:58We are going to use the herbs from the garden to make this cocktail.
13:02Here I have Mexican Hinojo.
13:04It has very anised flavors.
13:06White oregano.
13:08Oregano has good functions for the stomach.
13:10Citronella.
13:11Citronella adds very tropical flavors.
13:14This is very good if you have it at home
13:16because it also repels mosquitoes.
13:18We are going to infuse Agua Mágica Ensamble
13:20with the herbs that we cut from our garden
13:23to give it a more herbaceous punch.
13:25After 12 hours of infusing,
13:28we are going to have this mezcal
13:31very herbaceous and very fresh at the same time.
13:36We have a garden, which is the Cactaceas Garden.
13:38And one of the main ingredients of the cocktail is the nopal.
13:42What this is going to do is give us a lot of texture
13:46and a lot of air.
13:48A little bit of syrup.
13:49Green lemon.
13:50Slightly a lavender infusion.
13:53Unlike other mezcals, Agua Mágica is very subtle.
13:57I think it's one of the most noble mezcals I've worked with
14:00because it's super versatile.
14:05I made a honey punch that has pineapple, milk,
14:09a banana oil, and of course, Agua Mágica.
14:13We work with several mezcals
14:15and each region is completely different.
14:18Each plant of Maguey or Agave
14:20has its own flavors or organoleptic degrees.
14:23There are plants that are much more lactic,
14:25more herbaceous, more mineral, saline.
14:28And that also helps the cocktail to be super, super, super varied.
14:35The professional catchers.
14:37This is the first lab and there goes the other one.
14:44Let's say if this business model works,
14:46I think Oaxaca and places like San Juan del Río
14:49are going to look more like Burgundy,
14:51where there are many very respected independent producers.
14:55For it to go in one direction or another,
14:57it's going to depend a lot on the consumers,
15:00how they consume the mezcal.
15:03The highest quality producers are going to start to stand out.
15:07I think that's why the mezcal can have a very big impact
15:10in the communities of Oaxaca in general.
15:18Here we say, chica, chica.
15:21Chica, chica.
15:25It's relaxing, like the body is sweating.
15:28Chica, chica.
15:33Let's do a little thing.
15:35Like this, like this.
15:44When I saw the bottle of magic water in my hands,
15:49I felt very proud.
15:52All the sacrifice, all the time we've been battling,
15:57but we've achieved that.
16:00The moment we met at the gas station in Mitla,
16:05the first meeting with Rafa,
16:08was the most beautiful thing in my life, I think,
16:12because that is taking me forward.
16:19We want to keep this forever,
16:21the culture of producing good mezcal,
16:26and that San Juan del Río
16:28is recognized in the world
16:31that here we produce the best mezcal in Oaxaca.