Valente Angel García

Don Valente Ángel García Juárez produces exported mezcal for Los Danzantes at his palenque in Santa María La Pila, Mihuatlán, Oaxaca. His most popular mezcal is Alipus San Andres in the pink bottle. He has produced a number of Mezcalero releases including the outstanding Mezcalero Special Bottling #2 made with agave Rhodacantha (Mexicano).

Don Valente’s mezcals are wood-roasted in a stone horno, shredder-crushed, then fermented with wild yeasts, and double-distilled on 200-liter copper potstills. He crushes his agaves with a shredder from which he has removed most of the teeth, this creates a far less uniform milling and results in more liquid fermentations. A common flavor across his mezcals is crisp minerality which is a result of the water source surrounding his palenque.

If you like his mezcal, try to find something from his grandson, Semei Garcia Ramos.