Hugo García Maldonado

Hugo García Maldonado is the youngest maestro working at the Rancho los Tres Carnales palenque. He was born in 2000 and made his first batch at 17, not long after returning from a stint in Baja California. Having joined his brothers in Los Cabos, Hugo came back to the rancho to assist his mother Marcela in the care of their lands and to participate in community tequio. Thanks to the incredible foresight and efforts of his mother, who planned the cultivation of a multitude of species and types of agave over the years, Hugo was well poised to make a living in mezcal production upon his return home. Along with others in town, Hugo has taken advantage of the increasing demand for young Espadín plantlets and has funded many of his endeavors through these sales. In addition to these activities, Hugo and Marcela have been working toward the preservation of different endemic Agave karwinskii cultivars, a plethora of different Agave americana lines, Tobalá, Coyote, and other “at risk” magueyes native to the region for use in their family productions. Many of their best plants get saved for seed or for cloning, so he currently only distills a couple hundred liters of spirits a year. Despite having comparatively less experience than his cousins and uncles, Hugo is already making some of the most delicious juice in town.

Soil types: colorada, roja, cascajudo, blanca, negra

Oven: 10-ton capacity, conical, earthen oven

Mashing: machete, axe, and shredder

Fermentation: 4 Montezuma cypress sabino wood tanks. 1200-liter capacity.

Distillation: Los Carnales use two different copper pot stills, one with a 250-liter capacity, and the other, slightly larger at 300 liters.