The Other Agave Spirits: Bacanora and Raicilla

According to the International Wines and Spirits Record Drinks Market Analysis, increased demand for tequila and mezcal in recent years has fueled consumer and brand owner interest in alternative agave-based spirits. In A Field Guide to Tequila: What it is, Where it's from, and How to taste it (Artisan Books, 2023), Clayton J. Szczech offers a succinct description of this trend. "These spirits, made with the same ancestral methods as tequila and mezcal, have a range of regional names: bacanora, raicilla, and sotol (which technically is made with a relative of agave, the desert spoon plant) are a few; some others are simply labeled as destilado de agave." (Read our review of A Field Guide to Tequila and our review of Agave Spirits) What are these traditional and newfangled agave drinks all about?

Bacanora

Bacanora is a distilled Mexican spirit made with Agave Angustifolia Haw (also known as Pacifica or Yaquiana) only in the state of Sonora. The name stems from the indigenous Ópata language where "baca" means as "reed" and "nora" represents shortened form of "noraco" that translates as hillside. This plant is cooked in a traditional below ground ovens for several days, and then ground and fermented with cultured aromatic yeast.

Kilinga is a single-estate, family-owned bacanora distillery located in Álamos, Sonora, Mexico that has the distinction of offering the first imported fully accredited bacanora to the United States. Named for the family matriarch, the brand is sophisticated and elegant. Rodrigo Bojorquez Bours established the company in 2018 and set out to create something rooted in tradition but also unique. The agave is harvested at different stages of maturation, thus producing four variations of Kilinga: Kilinga Silvestre, a fresh and floral spirit made with 7-8 year Agave Angustifolia Haw; Kilinga Blanco made with 10-12 year Agave Angustifolia Haw, which is rich and smoky; Kilinga Reposado that is aged in White American Oak Barrels from 6 to 10 months and takes on the aroma of caramel, vanilla and coffee; and Kilinga Anejo which is aged in French Oak barrels from 34 to 36 months and has even more complexity with notes of chocolate.

Raicilla

This agave spirit comes from the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. Similar to wine, raicilla can be defined by the terroir where it's grown as evidenced by the categories of racilla: de la costa (coastal), de la sierra (mountainous) del llano (grown inland on flat terrain). This distinction allows for consumers to experience the place where the spirit originated in a more descriptive way compared to tequila or Mezcal. Another key distinction is that unlike Mezcal, the plants are often roasted without smoke.

Ansley Coale of Caddell & Williams, a store specializing in small-production spirits, points to the experiential appeal of this particular agave spirit noting how raicilla is not easy to find because there's not a big market for it yet. "Raicilla is for certain people who want to try something new and enjoy the hunt searching for raicilla.” Coale's shop carries about 10 raicillas, including those from Balam, Las Perlas and Mexicat.

Sotol

Sotol is made from the desert plants Dasylirion texanum (known as sotol in Spanish) and Dasylirion wheeleri. These wild plants are naturally organic and typically mature from between 12 to 15 years. They are not agave plants, but sotol is often confused with agave because it is a succulent and processed in some of the same ways that agave is. Read more about sotol makers Desert Door and Marfa Spirit Company.

Hard Agave RTDs

In January 2024, Thorntail Hard Agave came on the market as an clean, crisp, refreshing, quaffable, and crushable drink that's fermented with 100% organic blue weber agave nectar and available in three flavors: Seat Salt Lime, Passionfruit Guava, and Peach Strawberry. The name Thorntail derived from is a type of hummingbird that's a key pollinator of agave plants with some species of hummingbirds migrating from Southern Mexico up to the Pacific Northwest. According to CEO and Founder, Joel VandenBrink, they chose to market Thorntail at a low 5% ABV with low sugar content after their research discovered there was a need for a beverage that tasted like an RTD but was lower in calories and lower in ABV.

Rise of U.S. Domestic Agave Spirits

Shelter California Agave and Shelter Distilling Agave Murrieta

Most U.S.-based distillers either bottle agave spirits distilled in Mexico for sale in the United States or they import agave syrup and the distill the spirit themselves. However, the presence of wild agave in places such as South Africa, Australia, India, and California have led a select but growing number of distillers to produce a spirit made from agave grown in the United States.

Karl Anderson, Co-owner of Shelter Distilling (Mammoth Lakes, CA) works with California farmers who are growing different varieties of agave plants throughout the state including Agave Tequilana (Blue Weber) used in Tequila, to Agave Americana, Agave Potatorum (Tobala), Agave, and Agave Parryi which are found in Mezcals and other regionally categorized non-Blue Weber spirits. All of these plants are affected by the regions they're grown in combined with water from those regions.

As Anderson reflects, their goal at Shelter is to let the plants shine and bring forth all of the flavors that the plants offer. "It’s a different take on an age old tradition and the expressions that we’ve been bottling are as unique as the plants themselves. No two batches have been the same which is part of the fun. Each harvest has created its own special agave spirit and each year has brought different flavors."

According to Craig Reynolds of the California Agave Council the other California-based distilleries that produce U.S. Agave Spirits made with agave grown in the United States are Ventura Spirits (Ventura), Venus Spirits (Santa Cruz), and Jano Spirits (Napa). All are made from 100% California-grown agave with no additives, in compliance with a recently passed California labeling law. Moving forward, Reynolds predicts that as genuine U.S. Agave Spirits gain further acceptance, and climate change pushes farmers to grow low-water crops, even more farmers and distillers will pursue agave spirits.