Our story with Derrumbes starts in a taxi on our way to Santa Catarina Minas to meet Graciela, but this is not her story. Javier, the lovely man that drives the taxi, is actually not a taxi driver at all, but a maestro mezcalero using his dad’s old cab for tax reasons. It was really nice of Javier to offer to drive us to a different distillery than his own, just because he is a really good man. Javier produces a mezcal called Los Javis, that is his thing. On the side he produces a few special batches for Esteban, the man behind the brand Derrumbes. Esteban is expanding the brand slowly but surely and will release Mezcals from producers of his liking and from different states in Mexico. Everything about these Mezcals is anything but usual.

Derrumbes Zacatecas is made with agave Tequilana Weber, which is also commonly known as blue or azul agave. This agave is well known for it’s use in tequila, and the town of Huitzila, Zacatecas, where this mezcal is made, is very close to the Tequila Valley.  The town is more well-known for mezcals that are made in a similar style of tequila, but the Bañuelos family, who produce this Derrumbes mezcal, is one of the only regional distillers producing traditional mezcals. This mezcal is pit roasted, tahona milled, and traditionally fermented in stainless steel vats and distilled in copper stills.