Abasolo Mexican Corn

About the Abasolo Mexican Corn

Abasolo Mexican Corn is a whisky made entirely from heirloom Cacahuazintle corn, distilled in Mexico. The distillery sits northwest of Mexico City, in Jilotepec de Molina Enríquez. Abasolo works straight with farmers in the surrounding mountains of the State of Mexico. They grow a corn variety chosen for flavour, not for tonnage. Bottled at 43% ABV, the whisky leads with grain rather than cask. Cacahuazintle corn only grows above 7,000 feet, in the high valleys of Mexico, Tlaxcala and Puebla. Local families have passed the seed down for more than 200 generations. Before fermentation, the kernels go through nixtamalization. That means soaking and cooking them in limewater, then washing and hulling them. Mexican cooks have used the technique for 4,000 years to make masa for tortillas. No whisky producer had applied it to a mash before Abasolo Mexican Corn. Pot distillation keeps plenty of cooked-grain character in the spirit. Roasted corn comes first, with a warm smell close to fresh bread. The palate turns malty and gently savoury, a cereal note with real body. Vanilla and honey follow, softened by toasted and used oak casks. Then it dries out, woody and long, with black tea and a trace of leather. It tastes of the raw material rather than the barrel. Most corn whisky on the shelf comes from the United States. This one starts from a different grain and a different kitchen tradition. Maturation happens in an open warehouse with a light roof and no walls. Temperatures swing through the day, and the casks work harder for it. Two spirits can share a grain and still taste nothing alike. Anyone curious about what corn itself tastes like should start here.