Kilinga

Bacanora Kilinga is made in Alamos, Sonora. It was founded by the Bours family who are generational ranchers in Sonora. The bacanora is distilled by first generation bacanorero Rodrigo Bojorquez Bours.

Kilinga has a great back story that goes back to the distiller’s mother. When she was a child everyone around her said “Que Linda!” to her and she, in the flush of youthful vigor and verbal invention heard “Kalinga.” The word stuck and became her nickname and was so endearing that it became this Bacanora’s brand name.

Just like many of the other families that I’ve met in Bacanora world the people there tend to be ranchers and farmers. This family is no exception: Bours is a robust man who used to be a full-time rancher farmer. As with many farmers across the world now, but especially in the American Southwest and Mexican North – they share a common climactic and environmental system – he has had to deal with drought and started planting agave as a crop as an experiment. Originally he sold to other distillers but gradually experimented to the point that he got into business himself. He says that “The climate is constantly changing” so he is changing year to year to adapt to it.

Bours and his team use both tradition and innovation in their production. The process looks like most mezcal but instead of the traditional roasting pit they have created a metal cage that they lower into a cast roasting pit. Bours told me that he designed Kilinga’s equipment in order to control the type and quantity of smoke their agaves come into contact with during the roast by using mesquite cured for eight months and venting away the smoke. He also pointed to their still design as focused on keeping the bagasse from contacting the bottom of the still in order to minimize any burnt flavors.

The design and branding of the label is full of desert fauna, including blooming flowers, which runs counter to what most people imagine when thinking of the desert.