Experience the unique flavor of Mexican whiskey made from ancient white corn, hand-selected from Oaxaca's Sierra Norte Mountains. Sierra Norte Single Barrel Whiskey made with white heirloom corn is a rich, smooth, single-barrel spirit. Whisky Advocate rated it 86 points.
90 Proof (ABV 45%)
DISTILLING SINCE 1996
In 1996, Douglas French founded a rustic artisanal distillery in the small Mexican village of San Agustín de las Juntas to make his own mezcal. He later created the first whiskey made and aged in Mexico using locally grown native corn: Sierra Norte.
Over the years, French built out the distillery to diversify and meet increasing demand, adding more vats, copper and stainless steel pot stills, semi-manual bottling lines, and other equipment.
His 50,000-square-foot production facility grew into a complicated but fun operation where French’s ideas blossomed into delicious hand-crafted spirits reflecting Oaxaca's rich flora and terroir.
French and his team manage the entire complex whiskey-making process in-house: from mash to distillation to barrel-aging, and then bottling, labeling, and shipping the six distinct Sierra Norte heirloom corn whiskies to destinations worldwide.
OUR PROCESS
Here are the five steps to crafting Sierra Norte® small-batch, single-barrel whiskies.
1
CURATING
We carefully select the best heirloom corn harvested by local Oaxacan farmers, then group cobs by color—black, white, yellow, red, purple, or multicolored—into separate batches.
2
MALTING & MASHING
Each type of corn is prepared into its own mash, comprised of 85% heirloom corn and 15% malted barley. The mash is fermented to convert the sugars into alcohol which can then be separated by distillation.
3
DISTILLING
The mash first gets distilled in small-batch stainless steel pot stills. The slow second distillation occurs in hand-crafted, 120-gallon copper pot stills. After two days, the yield is about 40 gallons of whiskey at approximately 54% to 64% alcohol by volume, still-strength whiskey.
4
BARREL-AGING
Each distilled spirit is then moved to its own cask in our barrel room or the cellars. Master Distiller Douglas French and his team regularly test batches during maturation, a process that takes a minimum of two years.
5
BOTTLING & SHIPPING
Once each cask's flavors adhere to Master Distiller Douglas French's standards, we bottle each small batch on-site and prepare to ship worldwide. This is called single-barrel bottling.
NOSE: Corn, warm spices, green corn husks, peanuts
PALATE: Sweet corn, honey, dried peel, oak
FINISH: Charred oak, burnt toast, peppercorn
COLOR: Caramel
*SHIPPING NOTICE- If possible, please use a business address for shipping. All shipments require an adult signature which is much more reliable at a place of business.
All orders usually ship within 24-48 hours unless noted otherwise