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Cérès
Primordia
Some questions cannot be answered at the distillery. They must be asked in the field, years before the harvest, in the quiet interval between planting and maturity. Cérès is Santo de Piedra’s agronomic research body, founded and owned by the House to explore those questions.
Through Cérès Primordia, the methodology we are developing to condition plants in their earliest stages, we study how to encourage earlier agave maturity and improve resilience to challenges such as water scarcity, with applications extending to the vine. Santo de Piedra was built on a single belief: that the quality of what we create is inseparable from the health of the land that sustains it. Our single domaine in San Luis del Río, where agaves mature over decades, shaped by altitude, wind, and distant marine influences, it is the living foundation of the House.
Early findings
Early findings from our pilot work across different soils and growing conditions suggest promising possibilities for Cérès Primordia. In agave, preliminary observations indicate a potential reduction of up to 2 years in maturation time, without compromising plant vigour, sugar concentration or vegetative development. In the vine, initial results suggest up to 11% greater tolerance to water stress, while preserving acidity and key indicators of plant development.
These findings remain preliminary and require validation over further growing cycles. As Santo de Piedra’s agronomic research division, Cérès gives this work the time it needs, allowing each season to deepen our understanding.
The Answers we try to find
From that conviction, a question emerged: how do heritage crops with long maturation cycles respond to the pressures of a changing world? How does an agave grown at 1,200 meters, or a vine in Champagne, adapt across different soils and climatic conditions, and what can patient, rigorous observation reveal that urgency never could? Santo de Piedra founded Cérès, its own agronomic research division, to hold that question open long enough to answer it honestly. Through Cérès Primordia, the methodology we are developing, that inquiry becomes part of the House’s enduring knowledge.
An effort to guarantee the future of our terroirs.
Mezcal and wine were here before us, carrying generations of knowledge through the patient relationship between people, plants and place. Today, rising temperatures, shifting winds and water stress are changing the conditions in which agaves and vines grow. In 2024, global wine production fell by 4.8% to its lowest level since 1961, with adverse climatic conditions contributing to the decline. 9 Behind these figures lie harvests, livelihoods and traditions whose continuity depends on the health of the land.
Through Cérès, Santo de Piedra’s agronomic research body, we work to prepare our crops for the conditions ahead. Our methodology, Cérès Primordia, began with the agave and now extends into research on the vine. It expresses a responsibility that reaches beyond our own collections: to care for what came before us, so that those who follow may still enjoy mezcal and wine, and the places and cultures they hold within them.