Fanekantsini Pelón Verde Mezcal
Fanekantsini Pelón Verde Mezcal is a tiny-batch destilado de agave from maestra mezcalera Sosima Olivera Aguilar in San Miguel Suchiltepec, Oaxaca, distilled from 100% Pelón Verde and bottled at 50% ABV in a 750mL bottle. Pelón Verde is a genuine mystery agave: it resembles espadín of the angustifolia family, but its leaves carry no spines along their edges — the trait behind its name, "green bald one" — and because it is not officially classified, the bottle is labeled simply Agave sp. Sosima roasts the agave in a conical earthen pit over oak, grinds it with wooden mallets, ferments it in open-air cypress wood vats with ambient yeast and well water, and double distills it in a copper pot — a departure from the clay pots of her Sola de Vega batches — adjusting with heads and tails and no water. The whole batch ran to just 150 liters. It is available to order online at Del Mesa Liquor.
- Style: Destilado de agave (uncertified mezcal), ancestral method
- ABV: 50% ABV (100 proof)
- Size: 750mL
- Producer: Sosima Olivera Aguilar, Maestros Mezcaleros Tres Colibrí cooperative
- Region: San Miguel Suchiltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico
- Agave: Pelón Verde (Agave sp.), 100%
- Method: Earthen pit roast, wooden-mallet grind, open-air cypress-vat fermentation, double copper-pot distillation
The Agave With No Name
Fanekantsini is the label of the Tres Colibrí cooperative, an association of eight producers in Oaxaca's highland Chontal and Sola de Vega regions founded in 2012 by Sosima Olivera Aguilar, who comes from a line of mezcaleros in San Miguel Suchiltepec and recalls making mezcal with her father and grandmother as a small child. Total Fanekantsini production runs to roughly 1,000 liters a year across every expression, so a 150-liter Pelón Verde batch is a serious share of the co-op's output. The co-op exists to share costs, work and risk among its producers while keeping native agave and regional tradition at the center. Browse more small-batch bottles in our mezcal collection and the wider spirits shelves.
Tasting Notes
Unusual and savory-sweet: ash, butterscotch, sweet tea and loganberry on the nose, then an evolving palate of shiitake mushroom, honeydew melon, grilled nopal, butterscotch and a matcha-latte softness. The copper pot keeps it bright and lifted where clay would round it — an espadín-adjacent profile with a wild streak all its own.
How to Enjoy
Sip it neat and give it time in the glass; the savory notes bloom as it opens. It also gives a mezcal Mule or Margarita an herbal, almost green depth — see more agave pours among our cocktail staples, and compare it with the clay-pot style of Tepanal Ancestral Mexicano from Sola de Vega.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pelón Verde?
An unclassified agave (labeled Agave sp.) believed to be a mutated form of Agave angustifolia. Unlike other agaves it has no spines along its leaf edges — "pelón verde" means "green bald one."
Why is this one distilled in copper?
Sosima produces at two palenques: the Chontal batches from San Miguel Suchiltepec, like this Pelón Verde, run through a copper pot still, while her San Francisco Sola batches are clay-pot distilled.
What proof is it?
50% ABV (100 proof), adjusted with heads and tails and no added water, in a 750mL bottle.
Who makes it?
Maestra Sosima Olivera Aguilar of the Tres Colibrí cooperative in Oaxaca; the 150-liter batch is imported to the US by PM Spirits.
Order Fanekantsini Pelón Verde from Del Mesa Liquor in San Diego, CA — one of the rarest agaves in the glass, from one of Oaxaca's most respected maestras.