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SB visits… Montelobos, Oaxaca
Our trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, as part of Montelobos’ Noche de Lobos event, featured everything from parades to palenques, with plenty of mezcal and mole along the way.
For any mezcal fan, a trip to Oaxaca is the ultimate dream. The region is steeped in the spirit’s traditions, with around 90% of Mexico’s mezcal being produced here. Walking around the city, street art featuring the spirit is a common sight, with the city’s people clearly both proud and protective of it. One piece I see reads ‘El mezcal es cultura, no mercancia’: Mezcal is culture, not merchandise.
It’s a bold statement, and one that throws up issues for any brand hoping to sell the region’s spirit to the rest of the world. Montelobos’ master distiller, Iván Saldaña, thinks there’s a fine line to walk: “Any good – even art – is a transaction. The quality and the purpose of the transaction matters. What is the collateral of me offering you a bottle? Am I taking you to a deeper understanding of things or am I just using a marketing strategy to sell you what you wanted without knowing it?
“Fom the way we produce and subjects like sustainability, as well as working with the López family, we have taken a lot of care since the early existence of the brand. Yes, we are building a business, but we want everyone in our path to gain something.”
Day one: Comparsa parade
Arriving in Oaxaca after 21 hours of travel and somewhat jet-lagged, I was happily reinvigorated by a ‘comparsa’ parade outside the city’s Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán. The comparsa is a festive procession traditionally tied to Día de los Muertos, but also plays a part in other traditions, such as weddings – we heard two separate comparsas before ours.
At the comparsa, we were presented with a jícara, a cup that in this case was hand-carved with Montelobos’ iconic wolf by a local artisan and attached with a string to wear around your neck. While an incredibly beautiful item, the jícara is not simply for decoration – from it we enjoyed Montelobos’ Espadín mezcal in generous (but responsible) quantities.
The event began with a traditional musical performance, before the parade – comprising characters such as La Catrina, El Diablo, La Muerte and El Nahual – took to the streets, with us along with it. Confused but eager tourists were collected along the way as fireworks burst out of the crowds, before the parade finished up at La Casa del Vitral.
Our first dinner of the trip was created by chef Rodolfo Castellanos, who served up a menu of traditional Oaxacan cuisine, which is recognised as a Unesco Intangible World Cultural Heritage. A particular highlight was my first taste of mole, in this instance a black mole accompanied by chicken, plantain purée, cauliflower and corn. Equally as delightful were cocktails created by the city’s Sabina Sabe bar, which used Montelobos Espadín in a trio of serves: a Mandarin Margarita, a Fig and Pear Negroni and Ponche Mixe, which comprised ginger, hibiscus and pasilla chilli syrup.
Day two: the palenque
A trip to Oaxaca wouldn’t be complete without visiting a palenque, and ours began with a scenic drive out to Montelobos’. Here, in the rugged hills and valleys where agave thrives, we met our guide, Diego Cantú, and were introduced to the Montelobos philosophy.
Our tour took us through each step of creating an artisanal mezcal, starting with the agave itself. Temperatures were already at 27ºC, but we crowded around the roasting pits to see the piñas being smoked, before heading inside to see the traditional stone tahona, which is dragged by a horse to crush the agave. The horse didn’t seem too pleased to have his working day interrupted by a group of inquisitive journalists and bartenders.
Then came the tasting of Montelobos’ five expressions: Espadín, Ensamble, Tobala, Ancestral Espadín and Pechuga. Each offers something different: the Espadín is the most accessible, while the Ensamble has deep vegetal notes and a ‘funk’ that may appeal more to the mezcal aficionado. Saldaña advises thinking of the ‘four dimensions’ of mezcal: the smoke and its aromas; the Maillard reaction, which creates sweet caramel, dried fruit notes; the vegetal aspect; and finally that funk. “In Espadín in particular, I wanted an equivalent representation of the four dimensions,” he explains, which is what makes the expression so accessible.
My personal favourite was Pechuga, an expression that is distilled for a third time with a turkey breast and other ingredients including red bean, cinnamon, cacao, macadamia, almond and rice. The method is traditional, although other pechugas may use a different protein and blend of spices, and is usually created in time for a celebration such as Christmas – making Montelobos’ choice of turkey particularly apt.
As the sun began to descend, creating a Golden Hour over the agave fields that caused the whole group to get their phones out and start snapping, we headed to La Fortaleza for another culinary experience and more music.
Out under the open sky, we enjoyed a cocktail menu featuring a Oaxacan Negroni, El Bandido – a mezcal take on a Spicy Margarita – and a Carajillo made with Ancho Reyes and espresso. The latter kept the group energised until late in the night, when the open kitchen began firing out tlayudas – a barbecued tortilla filled with meat, cheese and more.
Fire pits and ponchos kept us warm as the sun slipped away. As we headed back to our hotels, we passed a neon sign reading ‘Mezcal to wake the dead’. While I can’t attest to its necromancy skills, Montelobos certainly made us all feel alive.
Day three: the party
The third and final day of my Noche de Lobos experience opened with a chat with Saldaña, where he gave me his view on the ongoing celebrations. “Noche de Lobos for us is a very selected, curated experience where we want to take our brand and contextualise it in a meaningful cultural context,” he explains. He hopes the event brings better understanding to the brand’s ‘manada’, a Spanish word meaning ‘pack’ or ‘crowd’ – particularly apt given Monetelobos’ wolfy connections.
“The experience has multiple dimensions,” he continues. “There’s a rational, intellectual one where you get to know how mezcal is being made, but it also has an emotional and sensorial dimension as well.”
Our interview is quickly followed by some more of that cultural immersion, with a walking tour taking in some of Oaxaca’s oldest and most beautiful buildings, as well as its markets. We then headed to Casaoaxaca, a restaurant created by chef Alejandro Ruiz, who is widely credited with popularising Oaxaca’s regional cuisines across the globe.
Bellies full, it was time to visit Selva. The cocktail bar was this year recognised with two pins in the inaugural Pinnacle Guide, having put Oaxaca on the mixology map since its opening in 2019. We were greeted with a riff on Negroni called Banquet, which features Montelobos Espadín, rhubarb liqueur, Giffard, Campari, Vermouth Carpano Bianco and a raspberry shrub.
We were barely halfway through our drinks before bar manager Martina Marré put us to task making our own cocktails. We were to recreate the bar’s namesake cocktail, which comprises mezcal, hoja santa (a Mexican herb with a fresh, anise profile), lemon, agave syrup and Ancho Reyes. I managed to avoid disgracing myself with the cocktail shaker and took particular delight in blowtorching Oaxacan cheese for a garnish.
It was then back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for the event we’d been waiting for – the Noche de Lobos party. Decked in all black, we were encouraged to further embrace the theme with Calavera face painting, which saw us all transformed into La Catrina. I usually don’t have such a terrifying reflection until the day after a party.
Few details about the party itself were given to us before we arrived, and while it may be cruel to those of you who have made it this far in the article, I will keep some things a secret in the hope that one day you’ll get to experience your own Noche de Lobos. My personal highlights included a cleansing ritual, fire dancers, a brass band procession and an extensive taco menu. And one final detail I won’t keep a secret: Iván Saldaña has some moves.
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