Mexican whiskey is on the rise, made possible by ancient corn
Of the 59 native corn varieties in Mexico, nal t’eel is one of the oldest, having originated in the Yucatán Peninsula some 4,000 years ago. It grows quickly, largely unaffected by heavy rainfall or drought – so robust that the Mayans called it ‘cock corn’.
Like almost all native corn varieties in Mexico, nal t’eel has faced a seemingly unbeatable threat in recent decades: high-yielding hybrids, developed mainly in the United States and favored for their efficiency, but rarely for their taste. Fields once dotted with a rainbow of heirloom ears are now awash in pale yellow and white.
But in 2020, some kind of lifeline was thrown out Gran Maizal, a distillery outside the city of Merida in Yucatán. The company works with local farmers and uses nal t’eel and two other native corn varieties to make whisky.
There are now more than a dozen distilleries throughout Mexico making whiskey, most of which use corn grown in their region. About half of them export or are preparing to export, including to the United States Abasolo, Sierra Norte And Maíz nation. (Because the category is so new and still quite small, sales figures are not available.)
In September, Gran Maizal also began exporting its whiskey to the United States, home of the world’s best-known corn-based spirit, bourbon – a move the founders see as both a challenge and an opportunity.
“Bourbon has been the center of whiskey popularity and growth in the U.S. for the past two decades,” says Gonzalo de la Pezuela, who co-founded Gran Maizal with Cesar Ayala. “So why not invite people to try a high-end whiskey from the birthplace of corn?”
Despite their common ingredient, Gran Maizal whiskey is a world apart from traditional bourbons, let alone barley-based whiskeys like Irish and Scotch. With bourbon, the charred oak barrel in which it ages is responsible for most of the flavor; in Gran Maizal the centerpiece is the corn.
“We did distillation on a very small scale, on a kitchen scale in a laboratory,” says Mr. de la Pezuela, who, along with Mr. Ayala, spent years perfecting the Gran Maizal flavor, capturing its rich, nutty sweetness of the corn and rejected the taste of the corn. test batches that produced too many caramel and vanilla notes associated with bourbon. “And we were quickly able to say, ‘Well, you know what? This sounds a lot like a bourbon. This isn’t for us.’ ”
While most bourbon is produced using a column still, which sacrifices character for efficiency, Gran Maizal is made using a pot still, which brings out the flavor of the grain. Mr. de la Pezuela and Mr. Ayala worked with a research laboratory to develop a proprietary yeast strain that they could use in fermenting their grain.
The corn is also nixtamalized, a centuries-old process in which dried kernels are soaked in an alkaline solution to make it easier to work with and to taste better.
And instead of maturing the whiskey in wooden barrels, Gran Maizal spends several months in terracotta amphorae custom-made for the distillery by Andreas Beckham, an Oregon-based winemaker who has designed similar products for the wine industry for decades. The only additional flavoring comes from a few handfuls of dried vanilla pods and cacao nibs – a traditional way to add a little sweetness to food and drinks.
“Everything we have done is based on what happened in Mexico thousands of years ago,” Mr. de la Pezuela said.
Each Mexican whiskey distillery has its own distinct approach to the craft: Sierra Norte blends its corn with a small amount of malted barley, while Maíz Nation ages its whiskey in new charred oak barrels for about two and a half years, like bourbon. But at every distillery, corn is king.
Maíz Nation, in the southern city of Oaxaca, buys its corn from a small number of local farmers who grow their crops using traditional methods.
“Every family has been growing corn for hundreds of years,” says Jonathan Barbieri, who moved to Mexico from the United States in the early 1980s and started making whiskey with his wife Yira Vallejo in 2014. “Maize is the intellectual property of indigenous societies.”
Oaxaca, home to Sierra Norte, is the heart of Mexican corn: the distilleries are a short drive from the caves of Yagul and Mitlaa UNESCO World Heritage Site where archaeologists have found the earliest evidence of domesticated maize.
Maíz Nation combines four corn varieties to make its whiskey – chalqueño, bolita, tepecintle and olotillo – each sourced from a different sub-region around Oaxaca. Chalqueño grows in the distant highlands, at about 3,000 meters altitude, while olotillo grows on the coastal plains along the Pacific Ocean.
That range of corn varieties ensures a colorful harvest and provides a nuanced mix of flavors. But Mr Barbieri said what is more important is the cultural heritage they represent.
“When we talk about the incredible diversity of corn and the ecosystems it comes from, we often think about terroir,” he said. “But for us, terroir is about much more than altitude, climate, soil or intersecting biology. Terroir is rooted in the way things are done and, in this case, in the history and culture of the people who, by growing it, are directly connected to their ancestors from 350 generations ago.”
Maíz Nation, which Mr. Barbieri plans to start exporting to the United States in a few months, has been sold in Mexico and France for about four years.
While critical reception to Maíz Nation, Gran Maizal and other Mexican whiskeys has been overwhelmingly positive, most distillers say their products have yet to gain a foothold in a country where clear spirits like rum and tequila dominate, and where whiskey drinkers overwhelmingly prefer blended whiskies. Scotch.