Palenque El Conejo

Clay pots in the family palenque

Antonio Carlos Martinez works by the pit, the mazo, and the clay pot. As master mezcalero at Palenque El Conejo in Santa Catarina Minas, he keeps ancestral mezcal in the register of family labor rather than display. Martinez is a third-generation mezcalero from Minas, and the work around him carries that inheritance plainly: agave from the field, piñas cooked below ground, fiber broken by hand, fermentation held in wood, distillation finished in clay. He is also the first mezcalero in his family to own a palenque, a change in position that does not loosen the method that formed him.

The house runs as a small-batch family operation. That scale matters here because the palenque is not separated from the household by much more than task and timing. Family members take part in the work, and visitors encounter production close to the tools: the dirt roasting area, the wooden barrels, the clay-pot setup, the simple tasting room. Martinez’s role is not only to make mezcal, but to hold the sequence together so that memory becomes method at the bench-side of the still.

The long way through agave

The program centers on ancestral mezcal from Santa Catarina Minas, where clay-pot distillation is not a decorative claim but the working form. Espadín and cuishe sit within the range named for the palenque, alongside expressions such as Espadin Capon, Sierrudo Blanco, and Marteño. Martinez also cultivates more than 12 species of agave on his land, giving the work a field vocabulary before it reaches the still house.

The process begins with piñas cooked in an underground pit, then crushed by hand with a large wooden mazo rather than put through an industrial mill. Fermentation takes place in wooden barrels. Distillation follows in clay pots, where heat, vapor, and the hand of the maker decide the cut. Tastings often move across 11+ batches, which gives the room a practical grammar: not a flight built for polish, but a reading of how agave, roast, ferment, and clay shift from batch to batch.

A backyard built around the still

The palenque sits in a rustic, family-run backyard setting, with the work visible rather than staged. The room is simple. The dirt pit, the barrels, and the garage-style tasting area carry more authority than any design gesture could. Conversation stays close to the process because the process is close to the visitor; the tools are there, and the maker is working among them.

Santa Catarina Minas gives the house its discipline. This is a village known for mezcal, and Palenque El Conejo belongs to that local grammar of agave, clay, and family practice. The atmosphere is casual and welcoming, but the welcome does not soften the craft into theater. Martinez’s hand remains the point of return, especially when a pour of Marteño makes the clay pot feel present in the glass.