Rum Artesanal

Deep in the mountains of Jalisco, a motorcycle-riding, meditation master crafts spirits with uncommon wisdom and unwavering devotion. Welcome to the world of Gerardo “Lobo de la Sierra” Peña, who crafts a Charanda that tells his tale of destiny and determination.

Some stories begin with intention; others with serendipity. When Lobo built an oversized oven meant for barbacoa, fate had other plans. A chance encounter with an agave farmer, who wanted to use the oven to cook agave and distill it into raicilla, transformed Lobo, a free-spirited restaurateur’s son, into one of Mexico’s most enigmatic distillers. Faced with a mysterious illness that threatened to end his relationship with spirits, Lobo instead embarked on a quest to create the purest, most natural distillates imaginable. Now, joined by his wife Rafaela, he crafts each batch of Charanda with the precision of a scientist and the soul of a poet.

Near Lobo’s property, a small patch of sugarcane whispered possibilities into his curious mind. Each stalk is individually hand-washed, a meditation in itself, preparing the raw material for its transformation. This painstaking attention to detail speaks to Lobo’s philosophy: that the purest ingredients, treated with reverence, yield the most extraordinary results.

Lobo defies easy categorization. He approaches distillation with the focus of a monk and the freedom of an artist. His methods, part science and part closely guarded secret, emerge from a decade of study into distillation theory followed by years of experimentation and intuition. With his wife Rafaela at his side, Lobo crafts spirits not for business, but for the pure satisfaction of creation; as he puts it “I want to do everything, just to see how it comes out.”

In this tiny mountain hamlet of just 40 people, at 4,000 feet above sea level, Lobo’s 200-liter alambic still works its magic. Here, in this remote paradise, he fills each batch only halfway – a testament to his unwavering commitment to control and quality.