Back in in September 2020, we kicked off Agave Mixtape Vol. 1 with a batch of Ageo’s tepextate, and a little over a year later, we get a chance to share another batch from one of our favorite producers and an update on what’s going on with him. The youngest of 6 siblings, Ageo inherited the responsibility of caring for his parents and helping them manage their ranch as they get older. While neither don Felipe or doña Cesilia look like they’re going to slow down anytime soon, it’s a job that has kept him living under their roof even as he became a husband and father. (Watch the video from Ageo and Asela’s wedding below)

For all the reasons one might imagine, Ageo has been eager for a house of his own. After exploring the local market, he decided to build a new house some 150 yards behind his parents, and finally broke ground on the construction last September. Since then, the construction has gone on poco a poco as Ageo puts the profits from batches and bottles he sells towards the materials and builders.

While he’s one of the smiliest guys we know, Ageo is also one of the most serious and studious. Giving a tour of the construction site last summer, he showed us the room he plans to use as an office. “You mean a bodega to store the batches?” we asked, thinking he’d called it an office as a joke.

“No, an office where I can keep my notes and files,” Ageo said.

As we’ve said before, the guy is about his business, and lucky for us, that business is making excellent agave spirits.

Depending on sales, Ageo hopes to move in to the new house in the middle of 2022, with a seriously fun housewarming party to follow.

This Batch

This batch was made of equal parts wild bicuixe and cultivated espadín, all of which grew on a parcel of tierra cascajosa donde hay piedra laja (gravelly soil filled with slabs of flagstone) that’s owned by Ageo, and was planted by his father, Felipe. Bicuixe being the most common silvestre and espadín the most common cultivado in the region, Ageo thinks its very representative of the flavors Mengoli, and that the two magueyes, bicuixe with its earthy flavors and espadín with its sweetness, balance each other nicely.