Full Belly Files | Agave Enthusiasts Unite & Tamale Day’s Recipe Winner

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I started covering California’s agave movement back in 2018, when Rancho La Paloma on the Gaviota Coast harvested the first crop of agave ever grown in Santa Barbara for the purposes of making distilled spirits. I wrote about that in an article called “The Great Agave Experiment,” and even delivered one of the pinas to Ventura Spirits from that harvest.

That story opened a window for me into similar projects happening elsewhere in the state, from Yolo County down to San Diego. In the years to come, I wrote a number of other Indy articles over the years about the California Agave Council, its efforts to build a viable California industry, and last year covered some of the growing pains it’s experienced along the way for Wine Enthusiast magazine.  

In time, it became quite clear that Santa Barbara was truly a leading hotbed of agave enthusiasts, which is what led to this story from last summer, called “Santa Barbara Sparks California’s Agave Explosion.” While reporting that article, I learned that the fourth annual California Agave Symposium would be leaving its original home at UC-Davis to come to Santa Barbara in March.

After years of nearly buying plane tickets to attend the Davis symposium — it never made enough economic sense to do so — I was excited to finally be able to attend since it would be in our backyard. I’d been hoping to even co-host some event with the Independent’s backing, but I’ve been too busy to manage that. All I had to do was write a bit about what to expect at the symposium in last week’s issue of the Independent.

Though it’s technically just a one-day conference, there were a number of pre-symposium events on Sunday, including tours of Ventura Spirits and the Rancho del Sol agave farm in Montecito. That evening, more than 100 people headed into the hills above San Roque, where Mark Hannah’s Arroyo Ranch — home to an amphitheatre of agave plants and the site of a proposed agave processing plant — hosted a welcome party.

There was almost every California agave spirit producer on hand, from brand new producers in Chico (Calavé) and Murrieta (Eselo), to growers I’ve interviewed but never met (Giver), to the three distillers that have the most experience so far: Ventura, Venus, and Shelter. The party was also the first catering performance for Quiote BBQ, which uses agave pellets to fire up its grill and smoker.

The main event was Monday, when more than 250 agave growers, distillers, and enthusiasts from around the world gathered at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront. (What follows is mostly from this article that ran on Tuesday, so skip ahead if you already read it!)

The shift from Davis to Santa Barbara recognized this region’s considerable impact on the statewide movement to grow agave. The plant is most popularly made into tequila and mezcal in Mexico, although there are many other products, like biofuel, fiber, and surfboards, being produced in other places as well.

Kicking off the Monday symposium was California Agave Council President Stuart Woolf, a prominent farmer of almonds, tomatoes, cotton, and more from Fresno County who is now growing more than 600,000 agave plants near Interstate 5.

“We are not trying to replicate tequila and mezcal — those enjoy a rich heritage with our friends south of the border and it’s something they own,” he said. “What we’re trying to do here is create our own identity with our own latitudes, with our own soils and elevations, our own terroir, and create spirits that are something uniquely different and unique to California. This is our opportunity, and this is what we’re kind of all about.”

The morning continued with panels on growing, distilling, and marketing, with the resounding message that everyone in California — where commercial agave growing is only a dozen years old — is learning how to do everything all at once in real time.

“This is all a really big experiment and we’re all on the ground floor of this experiment,” said Jordie Ricigliano of Los Hijuelos, which manages about 5,000 plants of 18 different agave varieties in Goleta, Carpinteria, and the Santa Ynez Valley. “Is there another chapter in the agave story that is yet to be told?”

During the keynote talk, featuring Madre Mezcal’s Chris Peterson and Davide Berruto and Agave Matchmaker’s Grover Sanschagrin, emphasis was placed on California’s ability to build this industry in a mindful manner. “There is incredible potential to do things right from the beginning,” said Berruto, who said the current unsustainable state of Mexico’s tequila industry is hard to watch. “Because you have the opportunity to start from scratch, focus on quality rather than focusing on volume and cost.”

The tension between small, artisanal projects and larger scale dreams for the industry was a recurrent topic, although the general consensus was that both are needed to build a healthy market in California. There was also grumbling over the name “California agave spirit,” which was codified a few years ago.  

“Agave spirits as a name isn’t sexy,” said Sanschagrin. “But I kind of like it because it can’t be owned.” He said the state’s focus should be on freedom — since it’s not beholden to the rules that exist in Mexico — and diversity. “Oh my god, the amount of microclimates you have!” he said.

The afternoon broke out into smaller rooms featuring panels that explored lessons learned by farmers, the latest scientific research, the challenges of converting the plants to alcohol, and what other applications exist, including aviation fuel, culinary syrups like Respeto, and pellets like Quiote to fuel your smoker.

Perhaps the most ambitious project discussed was from Down Under, where Jen Wainwright of Agave Resources Australia is raising investment around turning agave into a significant source of biofuel. The potential to rival more combustible power sources is exciting. “We’re just shipping syrup,” she explained. “It’s not volatile, it doesn’t blow up, and it lasts a very long time.”

That evening, Wainwright, Woolf, the Madre guys, the Sanschagrins, and other VIPs of the symposium — myself happily included —dined together at Convivo. The extra special guests were my cousin Ashley Eyre and her husband Paul Turner, who own Waikulu Distillery on Maui. They shared some of their agave spirits over an excellent, engaging dinner with guests from Italy, Israel, England, Australia, Florida, and elsewhere.

Plans for the 2027 California Agave Symposium are not yet known, though returning to the Central Coast will certainly be part of the discussion.  

National Tamale Day’s Winning Recipe:
Chicken Curry

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that tamale dynamo Richard Lambert was hosting a recipe contest to coincide with National Tamale Day on March 23. As promised, I am sharing the winning recipe: the Chicken Curry Tamale by Marna Coday!

“With spices at the heart of chicken curry, this tamale brings all the depth and warmth of more traditional tamales,” wrote Coday. “Onion, garlic, and ginger, along with tomatoes, curry powder, yogurt, and cream create a rich base for the chicken. Turmeric, coriander, and garam masala add an East-meets-West final touch that makes this tamale fun to eat.”

As to second survey question, which was “What do you feel people will say they enjoy most about eating your tamale?” Coday responded: “These are SO much better than your waffles!”

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From Our Table

Here are some stories you may have missed:

• At long last, I finally finished my story on the Dutch Garden’s recent history and latest iteration.
• Bob Wesley’s latest Pour Judgement column focuses on the wines of Dragonette Cellars.
• Tiana Molony checked out Buellton’s Wine & Chili Festival. (I never quite understood how spicy chili would go with wine but it seems like people love it.)
• Rebecca Horrigan wrote a fun and useful guide for eating around Santa Barbara’s theater neighborhood.
• Ella Heydenfeldt tried out the current offerings at Sushi by Scratch.