Aging

Most bottles of Cocuy Pecayero that leave Pecaya are as clear as water. After distillation and filtering, the spirit goes straight into the bottle. There is no barrel and no waiting period. In Mexican tequila, by contrast, Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo are distinct, legally regulated aging tiers.

This also comes down to the Denominación de Origen itself, which requires that Cocuy Pecayero be made from one hundred percent Agave cocui. How strict the standard is regarding added sugar varies by source: some mention two types, one pure and one with up to 20 percent other sugar permitted. Whatever is stated on the label must match what actually came out of the alambique.

Aged Cocuy, matured in wooden barrels, is the exception in Pecaya, not part of the classic category. Anyone tasting it will, as a rule, be drinking the clear, young spirit. This is how it has been made for generations — in the oven, in the trough, and in the alambique — without the color gradations that define whisky or tequila.

This simplicity is part of its identity. While other agave spirits are marketed with aging tiers and additives, Cocuy Pecayero stays deliberately clear. For the roughly 150 artisans of Pecaya, this means one thing above all: the flavor is fully formed beforehand — in the soil, in the embers of the oven, and in the wood of the vat — not later in a barrel.

Some younger producers are now experimenting with brief aging in glass or wood. For the Denominación itself, though, this changes nothing about the rule: Cocuy Pecayero remains, at its core, a clear, unaged agave spirit from Falcón.