Mezcalifornication

There's a new kid in town. Well, not really. More like brother. A familiar friend. A friend of a relative. A border jumper. Some say an imposter. Only time will tell where it goes and what it's called.

Ryan Carr uses a traditional coa to hand cut the agave piñas into strips.

What cannot legally be called mezcal has found a new home for production in California and has been making it onto my radar recently. The much more poetic name that has been legally coined is “California Agave Spirits.” 🙄 Everyone I have spoken to about this agrees it’s a terrible name to try marketing. One friend laughed and said, “can you imagine? Who is going to walk up to a bar and say, ‘can I get a shot of California agave spirits, please?’!”
 

Name calling aside, the folks producing this from the ground up are very serious about the endeavor. It's something of the wild west at the moment, with only the brave and bold trying their hand at any part of the entire process while everyone figures out their own tricks and secrets. One such trailblazer is Ryan Carr of Carr Winery. They are a long time and favorite client of mine, known for producing some of the best Santa Barbara County wines you can get your hands on. 

Before shooting the process of extraction, I asked about how he was smoking the hearts of the agave plants, known as piñas. It was my understanding that difference between mezcal and tequila is that mezcal is smoked, while tequila is steamed. That's not quite right. Ryan explained that tequila is only produced by one specific variety, known as Blue Weber Agave. It has strict standards and methods that have to be adhered to, which is what initially allowed it to become exported. Technically tequila is a type of mezcal. Mezcal has a broader means of production, coming from over 30 different agave species. 

A team of four is able to run the process for this batch

Never one to rest on his laurels, Ryan has used his wine and grape pomace to make both brandy and grappa in the past (for which, I photographed a small cocktail book). Now, he is working on perfecting his technique to make agave spirits from plants grown right here, in our backyard of Montecito. While some of the same tools and knowledge can be used for both processes, there are substantial differences of needs across the two. Mezcal producers in Mexico have facilities and equipment dedicated entirely to the production of one thing alone and usually at commercial levels. 

The dark extracted juice comes out looking similar to molasses. Part of this batch is put into stainless for fermentation, while another part will develop in an oak wine barrel.

 

For the small batch amounts being produced now, improvised sugar cane presses and hand re-hydrating the pressed piñas for additional extraction are getting the job done. Some experimentation is involved, as the families who have done this for generations seem to be holding their father's recipe secrets pretty close to their chests. Knowing Ryan for nearly two decades now, I have no doubt he will wind up with something uniquely Californian, and distinctly Carr.   

I plan to continue following along with Ryan's developments, and California agave spirits in general, as it seems to be a popular new force that will continue to grow and evolve as more people come to know about it.