DISTILLING SINCE 1996
In 1996, Douglas French founded a rustic artisanal distillery in the small Mexican village of San Agustín de las Juntas to make his own mezcal. He later created the first whiskey made and aged in Mexico using locally grown native corn: Sierra Norte.
Over the years, French built out the distillery to diversify and meet increasing demand, adding more vats, copper and stainless steel pot stills, semi-manual bottling lines, and other equipment.
His 50,000-square-foot production facility grew into a complicated but fun operation where French’s ideas blossomed into delicious hand-crafted spirits reflecting Oaxaca's rich flora and terroir.
French and his team manage the entire complex whiskey-making process in-house: from mash to distillation to barrel-aging, and then bottling, labeling, and shipping the six distinct Sierra Norte heirloom corn whiskies to destinations worldwide.
SUSTAINABILITY
Unlike any other regional plant, corn embodies the life-giving relationship between the ancient mountains defining the Oaxacan Valley and their inhabitants. Our process starts anew each year when descendants of the region’s first indigenous farmers replant the best quality heirloom corn kernels, following a tradition that's sustained communities here for over 7,000 years.
Sierra Norte is committed to creating unique whiskies and sustaining local Oaxacan agriculture. We created a seed bank and we redistribute heirloom corn seeds in collaboration with local small farmers. We pay them two to three times the market price of what they would earn if they sold genetically modified (GMO) corn. We buy their entire crop and we offer long-term purchasing plans at fair trade prices to ensure their economic security. Our commitment helps reduce the exodus of traditional farmers migrating to the United States to seek work and prevents precious Mexican heirloom corn from dwindling to extinction.
Since our inception in 2014, Sierra Norte has provided training and steady jobs for the most vulnerable people in the workforce. We hire single mothers, married mothers, single women, and elderly people who otherwise cannot find jobs and would have left the region to seek work. We are supporting local farmers and 25 in-house workers. Sierra Norte has been an integral part of the economic growth which helps make the Oaxacan region a more self-sufficient and sustainable culture.
