Sotol - nombre de dios

Batch: D-CV-01

Release date: February 2025

main image for the Sotol - nombre de dios mezcal page on the Sin Gusano project Mezcal Library
main image for the Sotol - nombre de dios mezcal page on the Sin Gusano project Mezcal Library

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Sotol (Dasylition Sp.)
  • Producer: Carmelo Vázquez
  • Region: Nombre de Dios, Durango
  • Cooking: 3 days in pit oven heated by volcanic rock
  • Milling: Axe & wood chipper
  • Fermentation: 3 days in open-air sabino wood troughs
  • Distillation: Double alembic, first in stainless steel, second in copper
  • Batch size: 180 litres
  • Date of production: March 2023
  • ABV: 48.3%

Right in the heart of Durango’s distillation hub, Nombre de Dios, Señor Carmelo Vázquez has been turning out tasty spirits for decades. He’s very well known locally, and in fact taught a lot of the younger vinateros in town all they know.

Carmelo works with Durango’s eponymous maguey Cenizo (Agave Durangensis), as well as Sotol (Dasylirion). Here we are pleased to present the latter - 100% wild harvested Sotol.

While similar in many ways, Dasylirion is not part of the agave family, and therefore this is not technically an agave spirit. Although they are treated in the same way locally.

For a good introduction to the subject of sotol, check out this piece from friends at Mezcalistas.

Dasylirion (sotol) is generally considered part of the Asparagacae plant family, which also encompasses agave. But while the stalk of an age flower often looks a lot like asparagus, the sotol flower takes on a more bushy appearance.

It’s also known as ‘desert spoon’ due to the shape of the leaves when pulled from the heart of the plant. These ‘spoons’ are often used for decoration at festivals and other events.

Flowering sotol in the Mexican desert

Flowering sotol

Bushy sotol flower

Bushy sotol flower

Decoration made from ‘desert spoon’

Decoration made from ‘desert spoon’

Carmelo’s sotol plats are wild harvested form the hills around the community.

Once they arrive at the vinata the piñas are roasted in a traditional earthen pit oven, milled by axe and chipping machine, and then fermented in Durango’s quintessential fermentation troughs.

So far, so the same as batch D-AC-01 from El Venado. But the big difference here is the distillation.

Rather than the traditional still of the region, after his many years of distillation, Carmelo has decided to swap to metal alembic stills. His makes a first distillation in stainless steel, and a second in copper - both pictured below.

For him, these stills are easier to work with, more efficient, and require less wood to fuel.

For us, it makes a fascination side-by-side with batch out other sotol release of February 2025, which is made not far away with the traditional stills.

An outside oven used for cooking Pina's for producing mezcal
Pits used for fermentation of mezcal
production of the Sotol - Nombre de Dios small batch Mezcal available exclusively with Sin Gusano
a shot of the Sotol - Nombre de Dios small batch Mezcal available exclusively with Sin Gusano

Gracias Carmelo

House Tasting Notes:

Nose: Cinnamon, star anise, chocolate shavings

Palate: Vanilla, cigar box

Finish: Tingly spice and cut grass

Sotol - Nombre de Dios small batch Mezcal available exclusively with Sin Gusano

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