Pelotón de la Muerte Mezcal is made by Zapotec maestro mezcalero Cutberto Santiago and his family in a small artisanal mezcal palenque in Santiago Matatlán, in the Central Valley of Oaxaca. Cutberto use ancient traditional methods, starting with cooking the Espadín agave in a stone pit oven for 4-6 days covered with lava rocks, after which it ferments for four days or more in wooden vats using only wild yeast from the ambient environment. It is then double-distilled with agave fiber in copper pot stills and bottled joven (unaged). All the wild agaves used to produce Pelotón de la Muerte are organically grown.
The name and label of Pelotón de la Muerte, which means Brigade of Death, commemorates the flag used by the insurgents during the Mexican Revolution who called themselves “the squadron of death for the suffering Hidalgo”, who tried to enact revenge for the death of the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the founding father of Mexico’s independence.
