It meant, of course, those two touchstones of time and patience. And change. Where countless tequila producers source their agave from wholesalers, Hermosillo uses only that grown on the 3000 acres of his organic estate (pesticides are banned; waste is used as fertiliser; sustainability is everything). They grow in soil heavy with gravel, which means they grow more slowly, taking more than a decade to reach maturity — usually 11 years, but sometimes 12. He does not rush the cooking of the agave cores — piñas, they’re called — instead steaming them for 36 hours in traditional masonry ovens, slowing bringing out their sugars for fermenting. Afterwards, the oven doors are kept shut for another 10 hours, letting the agave cool. But more time is needed: after the piñas are pressed in a screw mill, to get the juice, they’re fermented for five days in stainless steel vats, Hermosillo preferring to use only native airborne yeast, where others buy in commercial yeast. Why? He says the air picks up the smells and flavours of the land. You can taste it in the drink, he says, the mango and lime groves, a little of the Mexican soul.
Don’t shoot: How one tequila made its name by taking its time
