Viento Puelche

A wind comes down from the Andes and keeps going, over fields, lakes and forest, until it reaches the Pacific.

The fourth Mestizo follows that run west. Tepa, Laureliopsis philippiana, leads it.

The cap is pellín, cut from beams rescued out of century-old Patagonian houses that were going to be demolished. Its form is modeled on the Witch Stone, which the relentless southern wind sculpts on its own.

Hand this to the person who says they have not liked anything they have smelled so far.

Joel L. Martínez grew up in Arica, or almost Peru, as the founder insists, among herb markets, Aymara elders, olive groves and desert beaches. Training came in Europe. The house says the real mastery came later, from distilling and foraging in the Andes. The method is to burn what was learned, mixing what Europe taught with shamanic teaching and yerbatero ritual, technical data sheets with Aymara grandmothers' recipes.

The name comes from a myth about 432 hertz, a frequency where the universe, the plant kingdom and human rhythm are said to converge. 432 researches, distills and bottles at the pace of the seasons, and each batch differs from the one before it, made from other plants that lived through other storms and droughts. Releases are handcrafted in small batches, with batch numbers and an artisan signature. Five of the seven Mestizos have been released.