Alipus is distilled in remote pueblos in Oaxaca’s noted mezcal region: craft production in artisanal family distilleries. The agaves are wood-roasted in conical below-ground ovens, carefully crushed in stone mills, fermented slowly in open wooden vats using native yeasts, and double-distilled in small wood-fired copper potstills.

Artisan mezcal distillers really know their material: it grows nearby. Often the agaves come from their family’s own plantings, out in the mountains. Because the distilleries are tiny and because preparation and distilling are so much hands-on work, the distiller knows every step very well, can adjust his methods to the material in front of him, can best perform the magic inside his tiny pot-still: concentrating and purifying the flavors and aromas drawn from mature agaves.

Alipus mezcals are notably well distilled.