The Birth of Santo Cuviso

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: May 2024 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro

The Santo Cuviso Bacanora website greets visitors with the slogan “Turning Saints into Sinners since 1756,” a phrase that aptly reflects former Mountain Fresh Grocery owner, JT Fields’ personal evolution from wine enthusiast to agave spirits entrepreneur.

Perhaps I should start at the beginning.

The story begins two decades ago, when Fields and his now-husband Glenn Murer first visited San Miguel de Allende – a UNESCO Heritage site in the mountains of Mexico about 170 miles north of Mexico City. The colonial town dates back to the 16th century and still bears traces of Spanish, Creole, and Native American Culture, along with baroque architecture, and romantic cobblestone lanes. Fields and Murer were captivated by all of it.

But plans to return to San Miguel, to purchase a home there, were sidelined when “a little thing called Mountain Fresh Grocery got in the way,” as Fields humorously puts it.

Prior to 2019, Fields was the general manager at Mountain Fresh Grocery in Highlands for over a dozen years. While he oversaw many of the store’s operations, it was the wine department (where I worked for over four years) that truly ignited his passion.

Who among us doesn’t recall the enthusiasm with which Fields shared his endorsement about a particular bottle of wine? Clearly wine was his world.

JT Fields

Fifteen years after their initial journey, JT Fields and Glenn Murer finally returned to San Miguel de Allende. A few years later, following the sale of Mountain Fresh, they purchased a home in the UNESCO world heritage zone. It took a skilled team of designers, architects, and workers two years to restore the residence. After finishing the restoration, they were excited to expand their investment in Mexico by partnering with Santo Cuviso.

Fields admits that his first inclination was to consider that “Investing in a liquor company is akin to financing a Broadway play – not the most rational decision.”

But after attending a mezcal event in Tucson and meeting the partners, he became excited by the project. Today he serves on the company’s board of directors to which he brings his wine sensibilities. For Fields, the allure of artisanal agave spirits lies in their ability, much like wine, to reflect the unique terroir of their origin.

Santo Cuviso, which loosely translates as “the holy Mezcal” produces an agave spirit called Bacanora. It has been produced in Sonora in northwestern Mexico for hundreds of years, distilled from the juice of a type of wild Pacific agave. Historically, Bacanora was considered a mezcal. As I learned, both tequila and mezcal — tequila’s older, smokier cousin — are made from agave, a breed of succulent that has been grown and distilled in Mexico for centuries. But agave is also the root material of many other indigenous Mexican spirits. JT explained that Bacanora, which is made just like mezcal, is less smoky, more restrained with a brighter fresher taste.

The Santo Cuviso Bacanoras – of which there are three imported into North Carolina – are all wild-harvested and distilled by hand on a 17,000-acre ranch without electricity.

“Unlike most mezcals, this product is harvested on our land, cooked on our land, fermented on our land, distilled in our distillery and bottled on our land,” said Fields.

Among the Bacanoras available at Highlands ABC store are the Santo Cuviso Blanco, characterized by its dry, complex, slightly smoky, and naturally sweet profile with a kick of pepper and an earthy finish. The Santo Cuviso Lechuguilla boasts flavors of apple, oak wood, dried mint, and vanilla, with a bouquet reminiscent of dry earth and bitter chocolate.

Santo Cuviso is sold in 14 countries worldwide, with an annual production of 7500 bottles. If you’d like to learn more, visit Santocuviso.com.