Tepanal is a young clay-pot mezcal brand from Santa María Sola de Vega, the Oaxacan district that made clay-pot distillation famous. It launched in May 2020 as a family project: mezcalero Rafael García Aragón, his son Jair García, then 21, and their partner Antonio Avendaño. The name comes from Tepanaltepec, "hill of honeycombs," a nod to the honey that was once the region's harvest before agave took over. The process is pure Sola de Vega tradition. Agave is roasted in an earthen pit, the cooked piñas ferment five to seven days in open cypress tanks with nothing but the wild yeast in the air, and the mash is double distilled in small clay pots, which is what gives every Tepanal bottling its signature mineral, earthy backbone. What sets the line apart is range. Alongside espadín, including a capón version from castrated, extra-mature plants, Rafael works with agaves that rarely get bottled alone: Mexicano, wild Tobalá, giant slow-growing Arroqueño, and wild Coyote from the hills around the village, plus ensambles that roast and distill several species together in one batch. Bottlings land between 48% and 50% ABV, unaged, and each batch is small and different from the last.

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