Best Mezcal Tours in Oaxaca to Learn About & Taste Artisanal Mezcal

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Oaxaca and mezcal go together like South Korea and soju. While tequila often gets the glory for Mexican tipples, this smoky liquor is intertwined with Oaxacan culture, made from the agave plant. 

That being said, one of the best things to do in Oaxaca is to head out on a mezcal tour. While there are plenty of options in the city itself, getting outside the hustle and bustle to tour a traditional palenque in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca is where the magic happens.

Here, you’ll learn about the origins and process of mezcal making firsthand, sampling a range of premium artisanal mezcal straight from “farm to glass.

“Even if you don’t enjoy mezcal’s smokiness or distilled alcohol in general, doing a mezcal tour will leave you in awe and appreciation for this spirit and the great care that the Zapotec and Oaxacan communities have taken in producing it from generation to generation.

“Para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien, también; y si no hay remedio litro y medio.”

Famous oaxacan quote

Whether you are on vacation or living in Oaxaca as a digital nomad, heading out into mezcal country for a tasting or two at traditional mezcal distilleries is a must! These are the producers of the finest mezcal in the world, after all.

In this guide, I’ll spill the tea mezcal about the best mezcal tours in Oaxaca and do a deep dive into what to expect from a full-day mezcal tour.

Why a Mezcal Tour?

This coveted Oaxacan spirit is so much more than a way to catch a buzz; it’s an important part of local culture in this region of Mexico, which is exactly what you’ll learn about on a mezcal tour! 

Mezcal is a spiritual libation used in ancestral rituals and as a way to celebrate life. You’ll often see bottles displayed on ofrendas during Day of the Dead festivities and at other times of year. 

Instead of simply getting to know mezcal through your taste buds, why not also learn about the incredible history of its creation from a local Oaxacan? Not only does this give you a deeper appreciation for this sacred drink, but it also helps support local industries!

Best Mezcal Tours in Oaxaca

There are a few different kinds of mezcal tours you can do in Oaxaca. 

If you’d rather stay in the city, there are several walking tours that take visitors throughout Oaxaca de Juárez, with mezcal tastings along the way. For those who want a more in-depth experience, opt for a tour at a local palenque, where mezcal is actually produced!

Mezcal Tours in Oaxaca City

Mezcal & Mole by a Certified Sommelier

Learn about tasting subtleties in mezcal with a certified sommelier on this tour in the heart of Oaxaca City. Even better, you get to sample mole, too! 

This is one of the most unique mezcal tastings offered in Oaxaca City and a great way to learn more about two Mexican specialties, mezcal and mole. You’ll be greeted at the door with a mezcal cocktail before settling into this intimate experience, capped at six guests.

Grab your tasting card and explore the vast diversity of seven different mezcals, each one perfectly paired with a different mole that further highlights its intricate flavors. Each mezcal is produced with a different variety of agave. Bonus — this is a vegetarian experience!

You’ll want to book this tour ahead of time, as it typically sells out over two weeks in advance! This tour has a Badge of Excellence on Viator — so you know it’s good.

Walking Mezcal Tour

Stretch your legs on this mezcal tour through the streets of Oaxaca City. You’ll hop between three different mezcalarias on a three-hour tour that starts near the center of town in Barrio de Jalaltlaco, devoting one hour to each stop. 

Aside from tasting mezcal, you’ll also learn about the history of how this Oaxacan tipple is made and why it’s so important to local culture. After you’re finished sipping, be sure to ask your guide where their favorite place to eat is in town.

Book your walking mezcal tour here!

Mezcal Tours Outside Oaxaca City

Mezcal Educational Tours

If you’re eager to learn and do a deep dive into the agave spirit, consider doing your Oaxaca mezcal tour with Mezcal Educational Tours. These tours are led by long-time Oaxaca residents and expert mezcal connoisseurs, Alvin Starkman and Randall Stockton.

Alvin is one of the creators of the Mezcal Tasting Wheel and the author of the book Mezcal in the Global Spirits Market: Unrivalled Complexity, Innumerable Nuances, from which all generated revenue goes to charitable causes in Oaxaca. If you have questions, Alvin will have answers (and then some!).

If you have the chance to go with Randall, you’ll be in excellent company. A seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience, Randall knows the ins and outs of both the agave spirit and the industry.

Both Alvin and Randall are licensed, certified guides who will lead you into the heart of mezcal land, to the homes of the artisanal distillers who live and breathe mezcal.

Tours can be customized to suit your desires and needs, however, there are day tours you can do that will take you to severaltraditional palenques to see the ancestral distillation process as well the copper still process (of course, including tastings with the maestros or at the homes of the producers), and sometimes, a visit to a clay pottery village and/or a home where you can taste aguamiel and pulque.

For bookings and to learn more, you can email Alvin or Randall at mezcaleducationaltours (@) hotmail (dot) com or check them out on Instagram @mezcaled.

Banhez Cooperative

Banhez is a cooperative mezcal brand co-owned by 36 local families. It is located in the small town of San Miguel Ejutla outside of Oaxaca. Even better, guests can stay overnight in their hostel, Paraíso Banhez. Visiting Banhez is a unique experience because you’ll get to see first-hand the power of community.

Founder Francisco Javier Perez Cruz learned how to grow maguey as a child. In 2004, he was elected president of the National Mezcal Council and later founded the Oaxaca Mezcal Maguey Council, which ultimately led to the unification of local mezcaleros and industry members.

Today, these families have found a way to thrive in their businesses and create better conditions for local mezcal farmers in Ejutla and beyond. You can learn more about their story here.

Experience Agave

Founder Clayton Szczech began Experience Agave after permanently moving across the border from California into Mexico. What began as a passion for tequila eventually led him to discover mezcal. He now offers cultural mezcal tours in Oaxaca as well as raicilla tours in Jalisco.

Experience Agave does small group tours that are more intimate and ensure everyone can “see, taste, and participate in each moment.”

They offer a few options, including a mezcal day tour, an immersive four-day mezcal tour, and a “Pechuga Camp,” which is their most immersive tour, where you camp for 2 days/nights to learn and participate in making your own mezcal de pechuga in the rural town of San Cristobal Lachirioag.

DIY Mezcal Tour in Oaxaca — Ruta del Mezcal

If you have time and are comfortable driving in Mexico, you can visit the distilleries following the “Ruta del Mezcal” on your own.

You’ll find mezcal distilleries in these towns outside of Oaxaca City:

• Santa María del Tule (where you can visit the El Arból del Tule—the world’s widest tree!)
• Santiago Matatlán
• San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya
• Teotitlán del Valle
• Tlacolula de Matamoros (the Sunday market here is huge!)
• San Pablo Villa de Mitla
• Ejutla de Crespo
• Villa Sola de Vega

Pros and Cons of Doing a DIY Mezcal Tour in Oaxaca

While it might be less expensive to do a DIY tour, you won’t get the first-hand knowledge that comes with having a guide who also has connections with the palenques and distilleries you visit. 

You also risk visiting an industrial palenque rather than a family-owned one that cares about artisanal/ancestral methods of producing and distilling mezcal.

If you were to rent a car and head out into mezcal country on your own, you would need to arrange any tastings/tours in advance. The upside of doing this is that you can visit just one palenque of your choice for a tasting (like at Gracias a Dios), or combine a few. 

One of the biggest downsides is that, because you’re doing the driving, you’ll be limited to a few tastings. Keep in mind that driving under the influence of alcohol in Mexico is a serious criminal offense! 

My Mezcal Tour Experience

Las Bugambilias Mezcal Distillery Tour

Las Bugambilias offers a variety of tours to connect you with Oaxacan culture, food, and landscapes.

Their mezcal distillery tour is just one of many—and a good one at that! This is the tour we decided to do for our jaunt around mezcal country, and it did not disappoint!

René, the founder of Las Bugamilias and a local certified guide from Oaxaca City, is attentive, down-to-earth, and well-versed in the world of mezcal. He will teach you everything you need to know about this smoky agave spirit!

On this all-day tour, you’ll be shuttled to the World Capital of Mezcal—Santiago Matatlán—located about one hour outside of the city.

Here, you will visit an agave farm and three family-owned mezcal distilleries, have lunch in a typical Oaxacan restaurant, and sample fresh pulque (fermented juice made from the sap of the maguey plant).

During the tour, you will learn about mezcal culture and its artisanal production, while also having the opportunity to taste a variety of mezcal from the cultivated agave Espadín, as well as mezcal distilled from wild agaves like Cuishe, Tepastate, Tobalá, and Jabalí.

We must’ve tried at least 20 mezcals among the three distilleries — each had its own flavor and notes, even if it was distilled from the same agave species!

Casa Don Tacho

Your first stop in mezcal country is at Fabrica de Mezcal Don Tacho, a mezcal distillery with over 60 years of experience, founded by Don Tacho, a 4th-generation distiller.

Here, you’ll get an overview of mezcal from start to finish, with an explanation of the agave plants in the field by René, to a full tasting of Casa Don Tacho’s line of artisanal mezcal, Real Matatl, inside at the bar.

This part of the tour is the most comprehensive in explaining how mezcal is farmed, cooked, and distilled, which will lay the foundation for everything you’ll learn (and taste!) throughout the day

As you’ll discover during your walk-about, Casa Don Tacho replaced horse/mule labor with a machine for crushing the cooked agave with a one-ton stone wheel (“Tahona”).

Did you know? You can tell a mezcal is industrially made if the bottle only reads “mezcal” and not “mezcal artesanal.” If it’s artisan-made, it has to display it per CRM’s regulations.

One of the highlights of touring the Don Tacho distillery is that you get to sample a piece of cooked agave—it’s so sweet!

You will also get to learn and try mezcal reposado and mezcal añejo—caramel-colored mezcals that have been aging for at least 1 year+ in barrels (similar to whisky or bourbon)—along with mezcal “ancestral” that has been distilled in a clay pot.

Gracias A Dios

Gracias a Dios (Thank GAD) is the second pitstop on your full-day mezcal tour. I personally loved the backstory of how the company found its 4th-generation master mezcalero, Oscar Hernández, and made GAD what it is today, with exports around the world.

You can tell that this family is passionate about mezcal. Oscar’s daughter, Emmy, led our tasting and was kind (she is also an awesome photographer). You get less explanation of the mezcals here, but there is a video to watch that showcases their story.

You’ll start by touring the facility and learning about their mezcal-making process. It’s a much faster run-through than your first stop. What I love about GAD, in particular, are its efforts to achieve maximum sustainability and fair trade.

A few quick stats about Gracias a Dios’ commitment to “salud for tomorrow”:

• Solar panels power 100% of the factory’s energy.
• 60% of the water is collected from rainwater.
• The building is built with recycled adobe bricks collected from production waste.
• They plant up to 10,000 mesquite trees/year and sow up to 5 hectares of agave plants/year.
• Employees are paid 25% above the industry standard.
• No chemicals or fertilizers are used on the agave plants.

After a quick tour of the facility, you’ll have your generous mezcal tasting before breaking for lunch in town. The salty snacks and the homemade chocolate (made by Emmy’s mom) served during the tasting will hold you over until you get there!

We got to try various types of mezcal at GAD—Espadín, Madre Cuishe, Coyote, Mexicano, Pechuga—but the best surprise was their Agave Gin. A specialty of Gracias a Dios, this mezcal-gin combines the best of both spirits (and the small bottle size makes for the perfect gift to take back home).

If you ever wish to return to the distillery or do your own mezcal tour, you can stop by Gracias a Dios for a tasting. Learn more here.

After your visit, you’ll hop back in the van and head to the center of Santiago Matatlán for a typical lunch at Azul Adobe ($100 pesos extra). Between Paul and I, we tried the yellow mole and the tacos dorados—everything was delicious, and the starter (memelas) was scrumptious.

Casa Cortés

Casa Cortés, founded by Rolando Cortés, is the final palenque you’ll visit on the tour. This location is fairly small and rustic, but don’t be fooled—this renowned family-owned distillery has gone global with three different mezcals on offer…

• Agave de Cortés
• Nuestra Soledad
• El Jolgorio

The first is Casa Cortés’ line of joven, reposado, and añejo mezcal (offered at a lower price point).

Nuestra Soledad is the label dedicated to espadín mezcal originating from six different Zapotec communities of the Central Valleys; these are artisanally made in a single village by a single master mezcalero.

Lastly, El Jolgorio is Casa Cortés’ premium line of specialty mezcal, made from wild and semicultivated agaves such as Tepezate, Tobalá, Madrecuishe, and Mexicano.

Casa Cortés has built quite a reputation for itself as the second-largest exporter of mezcal in the world. They pay fairly (or even more than the industry standard), as Maestra Mezcalera Justina Ruiz Perez—the first woman mezcal distiller to join Casa Cortés—mentioned in an interview.

After your final palenque, you’ll stop by the home/shop of a pulqueria, El Pulquito, where you can taste aguamiel (the nectar/sap from the heart of the agave piña) and pulque (fermented ancestral drink). Then it’ll be time to head back to Oaxaca City (you should arrive around 5 pm).

All in all, Las Bugambilias tours (René) provides a fantastic service. The selection of the palenques was varied, and each had something special or new to offer. You will return from your tour with a heightened sense of understanding and appreciation for mezcal than before!

While we had an awesome day tasting mezcal and seeing the palenques with Las Bugambilias, there are other mezcal tours in Oaxaca that are worth checking out, too!

Final Thoughts

Doing a mezcal tasting and tour at the palenques in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca is simply a must.

No matter who you choose to tour with, you’ll have an immersive, memorable experience with this mystical agave spirit.

If you have any questions about any of the above-mentioned mezcal tours, drop them in the comments below!

PIN THIS OAXACA MEZCAL TOUR GUIDE FOR LATER

Special thanks to Las Bugambilias for hosting me on their full-day mezcal distillery tour. As always, all thoughts and opinions reflected in this guide are my own, and I only recommend vetted tours and organizations through experience and research.

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