Nicolás García Vásquez

Nicolás García Vásquez, 43, is the eldest son of Tomás García Cruz and Antonia Vásquez Pacheco, of Logoche, Miahuatlán. Both parents descend from dynamic mezcalero and magueyero traditions that their kids have proudly inherited and proactively maintain. Nicolas and his wife, Dominga, have six kids. The oldest, Miguel, has just started to make his own mezcal under the guidance of his father, uncles, and grandfather. Having grown up in a mezcal producing family, Nico joined his father and grandfather in their palenque as an adolescent. Like many young men in Logoche, he made his first batch at the age of 14, but it really wasn't until the mid 2000's that Nicolas and his brothers were able to begin to fine tune their craft.

At a time when agave and mezcal were worth next to nothing and regional economic opportunities were few, Nicolás and his brothers all migrated to the States as young men in the late 90's, working throughout the farming belts of the South and West Coast. They returned together to start their own families and dedicate themselves nearly full-time to the propagation of different species agave and making of mezcal (growing their own food also occupies a ton of time!). In 2008, along with their father and extended family, the brothers helped found the Grupo Productor Logoche cooperative, with whom Neta has been working with in various capacities since 2013.

Nicolás and his brothers, Juan and Eliazar, generally work together with their father at his palenque, but periodically make small batches of their own with agave collected from their land.

Soil types: colorada, roja, cascajo,blanca and negra

Oven: 10-ton capacity, conical, earthen oven

Mashing: Machete and shredder

Fermentation: 8 Montezuma cypress wood tanks. 1000 - 1200 liter capacity.

Distillation: Tomás and family use three different copper pot stills, one with a 250-liter boiler capacity and a second 300-liter capacity copper pot, both with copper caps, arms, and serpentines. The third still is composed of a third 300-liter capacity pot mounted with a tall, cylindrical stainless-steel cap equipped with a thermometer that allows the palenquero to monitor the temperature during distillation. This third still has become preferred for the refining (second round of distillation) at the García Vasquez family palenque. Recipes have evolved, but today all of the family’s batches are double-distilled. The smithing is done with the heads (puntas), the heart (cuerpo or corazon), and at times, a select cut of the tails (colas or común), depending on what the maestros deem appropriate based upon their expertise.