Single-village mezcal Annual production · 800 bottles Drink responsibly · 21+

Lote XXIV · Otoño MMXXV

Single-village mezcal from one palenque, in one village, in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca.

Six wild agaves, harvested from the hills above Santa Catarina Minas — roasted in a stone-lined pit, crushed by a horse-drawn tahona, fermented in pine vats, distilled in clay. Eight hundred bottles a year, no more.

Village
Sta. Catarina
Minas
Palenque
Est. 1984
Agaves
Six
wild
Yearly
800
bottles
See the collection Read the story
— Hand-bottled in Sta. Catarina Minas, Oaxaca —
Casa del Tobalá
★ MMXXV
TobaláAgave potatorum
Sierra Sur · Oaxaca
48% ABV · silvestre
Hand-distilled · clay still
CdT
LOTE XXIV · 142 / 800
750 ML

— Don Eustacio's palenque, Sta. Catarina Minas, October 2024 —

The village

Forty years of mezcal, from one family, in one village.

Santa Catarina Minas is a village of 1,840 people in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, a forty-minute drive south-east of Oaxaca city, at the end of a road that does not appear on most maps. There are six working palenques in the village, and most of them have been operating in their current location since the nineteenth century. We work with one of them, and only one.

Don Eustacio Méndez Hernández began distilling mezcal in 1984, in a stone-lined pit and clay-pot still that he built with his father — both of which are still in daily use, four decades on. Every bottle of Casa del Tobalá is distilled by Eustacio or his son Mauricio, both of whom we have known since 2007.

We don't own the palenque. We buy a portion of its annual production at a price set by the family, every August, for that year's harvest. The price has only ever gone up.

— Sebastián & Marcela AguilarFounders · Casa del Tobalá · 2009
CRM-certified
★ Slow Food Presidium ★

The collection · six bottlings · 2025

Six mezcales. Six wild agaves. One palenque.

Each is bottled at cask strength, unblended, from a single harvest. Production figures are firm — when a bottling sells out, it sells out for the year. Re-orders open every August.

I
Casa del Tobalá
Tobalá
750 ML · 48%
Amber-glass spirit bottle photographed on a dark ground
I.

— Agave silvestre · 12 — 14 years

Tobalá '25

Agave potatorum — harvested from the hills above the village

Our flagship. Wild potatorum, twelve to fourteen years old at harvest, foraged on foot from the limestone hillsides surrounding Santa Catarina Minas. Smoke, white peach, cracked black pepper, and a long mineral finish. Drinks like the smell of a wood fire two valleys over.

ABV
48%
Vol
750 ml
Yield
240 bot.
Status
142 left
$148.00per 750 ml bottle · ships free over $400
Add — to bag
II
Casa del Tobalá
Madrecuixe
750 ML · 49%
Mezcal bottle with a graphic paper label, photographed against a dark studio backdrop
II.

— Agave silvestre · 18 — 22 years

Madrecuixe '25

Agave karwinskii — harvested in deep summer

A taller agave, with a long woody stalk, picked at eighteen years or older. Sweeter and saltier than the Tobalá — green tea, sea salt, white pepper, dry hay. Many drinkers' favorite, particularly those who think they don't like smoky mezcal.

ABV
49%
Vol
750 ml
Yield
184 bot.
Status
94 left
$162.00per 750 ml bottle · ships free over $400
Add — to bag
III
Casa del Tobalá
Pechuga
750 ML · 50%
Dark spirit bottle in moody low light, photographed as for a ceremonial pour
III.

— Triple-distilled · ceremonial

Pechuga de pavo

Agave espadín, third distillation with seasonal fruit and wild turkey

A ceremonial third distillation, made once a year for the village fiesta in November. The still is loaded with seasonal fruit, almonds, cinnamon, and a whole wild turkey breast hung above the mezcal. Holiday-meal-in-a-glass — apples, baking spice, woodsmoke, salt. Very little leaves the village.

ABV
50%
Vol
750 ml
Yield
78 bot.
Status
22 left
$248.00per 750 ml bottle · annual release · Nov only
Add — to bag
IV
Casa del Tobalá
Espadín
750 ML · 46%
Mexican agave-spirit bottles photographed side by side
IV.

— Cultivated · 8 — 10 years

Espadín joven

Agave angustifolia — Eustacio's own plantation, behind the palenque

The everyday bottle. Cultivated espadín from Eustacio's own field, behind the palenque. Bright, citrus-led, gently smoky. Lower ABV, lower price — the bottle we recommend you start with, and the one most of our customers come back for after.

ABV
46%
Vol
750 ml
Yield
184 bot.
Status
126 left
$94.00per 750 ml bottle · ships free over $400
Add — to bag
V.

— The bottle, in the hand

Paper, twine, wax.

Every bottle leaves Santa Catarina Minas with a paper label printed in Oaxaca city, twine tied by Doña Carmela in the kitchen behind the palenque, and a dab of red wax sealed over the cap by Mauricio. No two are identical.

Eight hundred bottles a year — numbered by hand, packed in straw, walked the four hours down the mountain to the freight office in Mitla.

From hillside to bottle · four stages

Made the old way. Slowly.

I
— Cosecha · Harvest

Hand-harvested, on foot

Each agave is cut by hand by Eustacio and Mauricio, often after a two-hour climb to find it. Wild agaves are never cultivated, never irrigated, never fertilised. Twelve to twenty-two years of growth before we touch them.

— Sept — Nov · per harvest year

II
— Cocción · Roasting

In a stone-lined pit, five days

The piñas are roasted underground in a stone-lined pit fired with mesquite. Five days at low heat until the heart of each agave caramelises and softens. The smoke that gives mezcal its signature is laid down here, slowly.

— 5 days · mesquite · pit-fired

III
— Molienda · Crushing

By tahona & pine

The roasted piñas are crushed in a stone tahona pulled by Eustacio's horse, then fermented in open pine vats with wild yeast and well-water. Fermentation takes between seven and twelve days, depending on the agave and the weather.

— Horse-drawn · 7 — 12 days

IV
— Destilación · Distilling

In clay, twice

Twice-distilled in clay-pot stills — the older, rarer method, used by only a handful of producers in Oaxaca. The clay gives a softer, more mineral character than copper. The first distillate is rough; the second is bottled.

— Clay-pot still · double-distilled

In the trade press · MMXXV

"The bottle on the shelf at Casa del Tobalá doesn't taste like mezcal that's been processed for export. It tastes like mezcal someone in Santa Catarina Minas would drink, on the porch, on a Sunday afternoon."
— Punch Magazine
Best agave spirits of 2024 · No. 03
The New York Times Food & Wine Eater Punch Imbibe

Shipping & importing

Hand-shipped from Oaxaca, four times a year.

Mezcal is imported into the United States four times annually under our own TTB permit and California Type 17/20 licenses. We do not warehouse — bottles ship to you within forty-eight hours of arriving from Oaxaca, by ground freight, with cold-pack insulation included in every shipment.

Shipping is included on orders over $400. Below that, a flat $28 covers anywhere in the lower 48. We do not ship to dry counties, postal boxes, or freight forwarders — sorry for the inconvenience.

I.
Order placed · any timeCharges only when shipment is allocated
— Same day
II.
Allocation confirmed · by emailWithin 48hr of next shipment arrival
— 0 — 12 wks
III.
Bottle ships, cold-packed · ground freightAdult signature required at delivery
— 3 — 6 days
IV.
A handwritten note from SebastiánTucked into every box · including yours
— Every time

— Sta. Catarina Minas → 38 states —

Next shipment from Oaxaca · February 2026

Join the allocation list.

Casa del Tobalá ships four times a year. Our allocation list gets first refusal on every release, including the November pechuga that we never list publicly. No tracking, no marketing, one letter per shipment.

Request allocation Trade enquiries