The Sierra Norte Mountains, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, are one of the world’s paradises of biodiversity. The pure waters that flow from the peaks allow the growth of an extremely varied flora and the development of an exceptional fauna. How exceptional it is that the farmers of this area are the direct descendants of the same farmers who cultivated the same corn 7,000 years ago.
Distillation in the Sierra Norte began when master distiller Douglas French decided to use the ancient Oaxacan corn varieties to create a unique and extraordinary series of whiskeys. Each variety is distilled separately and matures in French oak barrels, until it has its own specific character.
Douglas, with his distillery, has managed to stem the emigration from this region towards urbanization in the big cities, recognizing the right economic and cultural value to the ancestral corn, a cultivar that he has recovered even with great difficulty, and donating local populations much better living conditions. A sort of agromecenatism that makes every sip of Sierra Norte, as well as voluptuous on the palate, full of precious meanings for the future of our planet.