Santo Cuviso Bacanora Blanco

Santo Cuviso, holy bacanora in translation, is a Sonora agave spirit made from Agave angustifolia, the Pacifica strain that bacanora law requires, the same species behind Oaxacan espadin but grown in the northern desert. Bacanora was banned in Sonora from 1915 until 1992 and made clandestinely in the eastern mountains for decades, so the category remains small and rooted in heritage.

The agave is roasted in an underground stone oven, fermented six to twelve days on well water, milled by hand and machine, then double distilled in copper. Bottled blanco at 45 percent, it runs dry, complex and lightly smoky from the pit roast, with cooked agave sweetness, a touch of pepper and subtle mesquite and oak over a grounded, earthy finish. The desert terroir gives it a drier, more mineral cast than southern mezcal.