Like many families in this high-altitude “cloud forest”—about six hours behind the wheel from Oaxaca City—José Luis Carrera and his forebears have been growing sugar cane and distilling their own Ron in their little traipse for generations. Until recently, this rural Mexican Agricole—locally called Aguardiente de Caña—was seldom seen outside the village where it was produced. Indeed, Paranubes Ron is one of the first cane spirits from Oaxaca to appear in the world’s finest bars.

Carrera grows four kinds of organic sugarcane in the forested hills of Huautepec province—Tipica, Negra, Dura and Criollo—each of which is used to make Paranubes. The cane is transported out by donkey and then driven to the distillery where the freshly pressed cane juice is fermented naturally in 1,100-litre pine vats. No water or cultivated yeasts are added; instead, a boiled bark mixture from native mesquite is used to kick-start fermentation—literally the only additive in the entire process. The fermented liquid is then transferred to a rustic, six-plate copper column still that’s heated over a fire made from used cane fibre.

It’s a silky, round and wonderfully complex aguardiente de caña, combining the funk and flavour of a top Rhum Agricole with an earthy, bucolic sense of place. In spite of its flavour punch, it’s a brilliant mixing cane spirit and one thing is for sure—our daiquiris at Bibendum Bar will never be the same again...

What really sets Carrera’s Ron apart from its cane spirit contemporaries—Rhum Agricole and Cachaça—and his neighbours, is the use of a rolling fermentation, which adds layers of funk and complexity. Carrera’s vessels still only hold about 550 litres of liquid at a time, so instead of filling, emptying and refilling the fermentation vats every day as many producers do, Carrera takes only half the must out of the vat every morning for distillation. What this means is the vats are a mix of very old and very young fermenting liquids, since they are only entirely emptied three times a year. To taste, it’s silky, round and wonderfully complex, combining the funk and flavour of a top Rhum Agricole with elegance and a truffle-like finish.