Oaxaca mezcal: agaves, production styles and major brands

Oaxaca produced 89.47% of Mexico’s reported certified mezcal in 2025. Its industry includes internationally distributed brands, grower cooperatives and family palenques making small batches. Espadín, pit ovens and copper stills are familiar features, alongside a much wider range of agaves and local techniques. ¹¹

Mezcal from the valleys and southern highlands

Important production areas include Santiago Matatlán and the valleys around Tlacolula and Ocotlán, along with Ejutla, Miahuatlán and Sola de Vega in the southern highlands. In Oaxaca, a distillery is called a palenque. ¹³

Estate producers used copper stills, while families also made agave spirits with stacked clay pots and reeds. ¹³

Artesanal, ancestral and the Mezcal category

Certified mezcal has three production categories: Mezcal, Mezcal Artesanal and Mezcal Ancestral. Each sets rules for cooking, crushing, fermentation and distillation. Artesanal permits a wider range of equipment than ancestral, including mechanical shredders and copper stills. ¹⁶

Artesanal accounted for 91.03% of Mexico’s reported certified production in 2025. Ancestral, with its pit ovens and clay pot distillation, accounted for 0.77%. ¹⁷

National certified production, 2025. The full equipment requirements are in NOM-070. ^{16 17}

“Industrial” is an informal name sometimes used for the Mezcal category. Joven, reposado and añejo describe classes within those categories. Our guide to mezcal classifications explains the production rules and label terms. ¹⁶

400 Conejos, Montelobos and other major brands

400 Conejos is made in Santiago Matatlán and belongs to Becle, the company behind José Cuervo. It led Impact Databank’s estimated US mezcal sales for 2025, ahead of Del Maguey and Ilegal. ^{18 19}

Montelobos Espadín is pit roasted, crushed with a mule powered tahona, fermented in open pine vats and distilled in copper pots. Its Tobalá and Ensamble come from Puebla. Campari acquired the remaining stake in Montelobos in 2024, becoming its sole owner. ²⁴

Banhez offers a different ownership model: the families of the UPADEC cooperative own and operate the brand. Its Ejutla production uses pit ovens, tahonas, wooden fermentation vats and copper refrescador stills. ²²

See the leading mezcal brands for sales figures and bar-survey results, and our guide to the spirits groups behind tequila and mezcal brands for more on Becle, Campari, Bacardi and Pernod Ricard.

Espadín, tobalá, tepeztate and many other agaves

Espadín (A. angustifolia) is widely used in Oaxaca, including the familiar expressions from 400 Conejos, Ilegal and Montelobos. Across Mexico, the espadín category accounted for 84.53% of reported certified production in 2025. ^{14 19 21 24}

Other Oaxaca agaves include tobalá (A. potatorum), tepeztate (A. marmorata) and the stem forming karwinskii agaves. Local karwinskii names include largo, cuishe and madrecuishe. Mezcal made from a mixture of agaves is often called an ensamble. ^{3 13}

Fieldwork in Oaxaca and Puebla during 2017–2018 documented eleven locally distinguished forms of A. karwinskii. Growers used some as living fences and propagated them from seed as well as vegetatively. ⁴

Pit roasting, fermentation and different stills

In many Oaxaca palenques, agave cooks over heated stones in an earth pit, covered to hold in the heat. A tahona, a heavy stone wheel, crushes the cooked agave; other distilleries use wooden mallets or mechanical shredders. Fermentation often includes the crushed agave fibers. Vessels include wooden vats, clay containers and, in some communities, cowhides. ¹³

Copper pot stills and clay pot stills both have long local histories. Some copper stills use a refrescador: a water cooled section around the upper chamber that condenses part of the vapor back into the boiler. The outgoing vapor then passes through an external cooling coil. In a stacked clay pot still, a cooled bowl at the top condenses vapor inside the apparatus, where a channel collects the spirit. ^{6 7 13}

These differences are easier to see in specific palenques. The profiles below illustrate particular methods and family histories.

Compare Oaxaca with Durango

Questions about Oaxaca mezcal

Is clay distilled Oaxaca mezcal always made with hand crushed agave?

No. Some producers crush by hand, while others use mechanical shredders before clay pot distillation. Mezcal Ancestral certification requires the full ancestral process, including its specified crushing methods. ^{7 8 16}

Why do some Oaxaca bottles say agave distillate?

Spirits sold outside Mezcal certification use another designation, such as destilado de agave. Real Minero changed its labels in 2022. ¹⁰

Explore another tradition

Continue with San Luis Potosí’s salmiana and steam ovens or Durango’s cenizo and vinatas. For broader background, see the mezcal guide and agaves used for mezcal.