IZO Mexican Sotol

A new sotol has been added to the IZO range of Mexican spirits, making it their first non-agave spirit.

We had some relatives in town last week so we took them on a walk in Madera Canyon, just a few miles from us in southern Arizona. On the hike we passed a lot of desert spoon plants, which grow wild here as well as in Mexico, and other parts of the USA including New Mexico and Texas. In fact there’s even one that grows in the driveway between our house and the house next door.

The Desert Spoon

I explained that just as the blue agave is used to make tequila, and other agave plants to make mezcal, so in Mexico they use the desert spoon to make sotol. And just as the agave plant isn’t a cactus, as many people assume it is, so the desert spoon is neither an agave nor a cactus, but is a member of the asparagus family. Not that you’d guess from looking at it, as it’s simply a giant ball of spikes. It takes 15 years to mature, and one plant will make one bottle of sotol. The desert spoon is also referred to as the sotol plant.

Making Sotol

Once the plant has matured, it is harvested, and the leaves are removed to reveal the heart of the plant. It’s then cooked in an oven, like the blue agave is, and the production generally follows the same pattern as for tequila. Not this IZO sotol, though. They make it in the way that mezcals are made, by roasting the hearts of the plants in fire pits dug in the ground, using local woods and volcanic rock to provide the heat, which inevitably affects the spirit.

It’s a legal requirement that sotol can only be produced in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango, with sotol being the state spirit of Chihuahua. That requirement doesn’t extend beyond the Mexican border, though, which is why a company like Desert Door can make sotol in Texas, and call it sotol, though if they tried making tequila they couldn’t call it tequila.

Types of Sotol

Again like tequila, sotol has several different types. A plata is unaged sotol, equivalent to a blanco tequila. A reposado (rested) sotol has been aged for anything from a few months to a year. If it’s matured for over a year it becomes an añejo, or aged sotol.

IZO Spirits

IZO produces a range of Mexican spirits including several tequilas and mezcals, and also a spirit called bacanora, that’s even less well-known than sotol. It’s a spirit made in Sonora, Mexico, and I’m dying to get my hands on a bottle as Sonora is the state just over the Mexican border from me, about a 45-minute drive away.

The IZO founder is Gaston Martinez, who’s from the state of Durango, where they make sotol and mezcal, though not tequila. The company, like many tequila distilleries I’ve visited, take a sustainable approach, recycling as much as possible and also using solar energy.

They also use traditional methods, hand-picking the plants, slow-roasting them, and although it’s labor-intensive and more expensive, it does produce the best results. The distillery has a bottling machine but the corks are applied by hand, as are the labels, and their spirits are all produced in small batches.

IZO Mexican Sotol

IZO’s mezcals and tequilas have won several awards, so what is their new sotol like? Well, it took me a while to find out. When we all got back from our walk, and after drinking some water to rehydrate, we were all keen to sample the sotol. However, when I tried pulling the cork out, the top part broke off and left a bit of rubber seal protruding from the neck. Maybe we should try something else, I suggested. No, was the answer – we want sotol! My wife came to the rescue by getting two pairs of pliers and slowly, slowly, pulling the seal out. (It resealed perfectly well with a cork from a wine bottle, and I’m sure this was a freak accident).

Tasting IZO Mexican Sotol

So what does sotol taste and smell like? Mezcals tend to be smoky, and tequilas usually display the earthy tastes and aromas of the agave plant, with barrel-aged tequilas obviously picking up additional tastes and smells from the barrel. Sotols, however, tend to be lighter, and more grassy and herbal, although some desert spoons, despite the name, do grow in forested areas and so can have notes of pine, or other trees and plants.

IZO’s sotol has a strong aroma, with those grassy and herbal scents, but a touch of mezcal smokiness too, because of the way it’s produced. It’s quite pungent, at 47% ABV, and there’s a dash of orange aroma as well.

The smokiness really comes out on the palate, making you think of a lightly peated whisky from Scotland, and there’s a dash of fresh lemon in there too. There’s also a slight and contrasting sourness, which is not unpleasant but it rounds the drink out nicely. I do hope IZO is ageing some of this sotol, as after a year or more in barrels it should pick up even more flavors – a nice thought.

Sotol Cocktail Recipes

While it’s pleasant to sip this neat, or perhaps on the rocks to dilute the alcohol just a tad, it’s also made for cocktails. You can use sotol in anything you would otherwise use a tequila in, like a margarita or a paloma, and give it a slightly different twist.

More Information

Visit the IZO Spirits website.