sotol is an alcoholic beverage distilled in Mexico from the cooked and fermented heads of several species of plants of the genus Dasylirion, commonly known as sotol or desert spoon. Dasylirion plants are native to, and most abundantly found in, the Chihuahuan Desert, which straddles northern Mexico and parts of the American Southwest. Once classified in the same family as agave, dasylirion is now recognized under a separate family, Nolinaceae. Sotol is protected by a Mexican denomination of origin established in 2002 that allows production in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Coahuila, a large region that includes forests, prairies, and deserts.
When the plants are approximately fifteen years old, workers harvest them and take them to a vinata, or distillery, where the production process is similar to that of agave distillates. See agave. The plants are cooked, milled, fermented, and distilled. Sotol producers range from artisanal (earth pit roasting, ambient fermentation, and small copper stills) to modern (large concrete ovens, commercial yeasts, and column stills). By law sotol must contain a minimum of 51 percent fermentable sugars from dasylirion. Further, it can be aged using acacia, ash, beech, chestnut, or oak barrels. Given such environmental diversity and aging options, sotol exhibits a range of flavors. See oak alternatives.
Sotol is gaining wider acclaim as global interest in Mexican spirits grows. Don Cuco and Hacienda de Chihuahua are the most prominent producers; however, smaller brands such as Ocho Cientos and Sotol por Siempre are starting to make marks on the international drinking scene.
See also Mexico.
Gardea, Alfonso A., Lloyd T. Finley, J. Antonio Orozco-Avitia, Noemi Bañuelos, Martín Esqueda, and Travis H. Huxman. “Bacanora and Sotol: So Far, So Close.” Estudios Sociales 2 (2012): 153–68.
By: Misty Kalkofen