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Posts tagged ‘espadin’

Jun 29

Espadin tasting

Last week we ran through an espadin tasting which featured:

1) Wahaka Joven

2) Metl Blanco

3) El Prometido (private reserve)

4) Del Maguey Chichicapa

 

Wahaka Joven

A subtle body, nice and round with slight agave notes.  At 40 percent it’s a great introductory mezcal.

Metl Joven Blanco

As far as we’ve been able to discern it’s only available in LA and NY now so check Ramirez Liquor in LA because they tend to have the most expansive mezcal collection around and ship widely.

Agave flavor notes combined with a slight chemical element.  Not a high degree of alcoholic heat even though it weighs in at 48 percent.  Wide mouth feel, well rounded mid-palate with a light tail.

El Prometido

From our private collection. Very alcoholic with a high heat component and a much more pronounced degree of smoke than the previous mezcals in this tasting.  Rounded viscosity in mouth.

Del Maguey Chichicapa

A very slight nose of that wet cement or cocaine which could just be the clean scent from the copitas.  That opens into a broad body with a viscous mouth feel and full agave flavor that lingers.  This was the obvious heavyweight of the tasting which didn’t sit right with everyone.  One taster said it was his least favorite because he detected an in “your face” smoke flavor without accompanying subtlety.  Others enjoyed it exactly because it was a very full body and fruit forward mezcal.

This was a fun comparison of espadins.  The Wahaka was very light and showed better than previous tastings, perhaps because it was followed by the Metl that wasn’t as overwhelming as other mezcals in the tasting.  El Prometido’s alcoholic strength was a real jump in type and the Chichicapa’s additional body rounded everything out in a very traditional form.

We also tasted  a pair of Arroqueños for a silvestre comparison; Real Minero and Cuishe.  They reaffirmed that espadins and silvestres are such different beasts that you should taste them for what they tell you about one another rather than a qualitative comparison within a group.  In the future we’ll keep these in separate categories and break out a third, the agave mixes that palenqueros have always made but which are now being tinkered with even more in the case of the Wahaka Ensemble and others. Both Arroqueños had very little alcoholic force, a much more subtle fruit mixture and a wider palate of textures.  One taster compared them to Tetris because of the different things that jump out at you as you taste them: One minute it’s a roast flavor, the next a touch of alcohol, the next some viscosity.

We’d like to open up invitations to our tastings so if you can make a tasting in the San Francisco Bay Area send us an email and we’ll add you to our mailing list.

May 25

Silvestres and espadin tasting

We just finished our third tasting this time focused entirely on mezcals that we brought back from a recent trip to Oaxaca.  We paired off silvestres and espadins for comparison and contrast.  All are in the traditional Oaxacan style.

We tasted:

1) Pierde Almas Espadin

2) El Prometido Espadin (private collection)

3) Cuish Tobaziche

4) Farolito

Profiles:

This tasting was set up for traditional Oaxacan mezcals so it favors the heavier body, higher alcohol content and more fruit forward approach that most brands eschew when they approach the market in the United States.

1) Pierde Almas Espadin comes from the Chichicapam region of Oaxaca and is produced by Alfonso Sanchez and his brothers.

2) El Prometido Espadin is a palenquero’s special blend from San Dionisio that we brought back from a recent tasting outside of Oaxaca.  We’re sworn to secrecy on who produced it but it’s a very traditional 100% espadin.

3) The Cuish Tobaziche is a silvestres or fruit of a wild maguey called Tobaziche.  It’s from Miahuatlan and is made in the traditional style, a truly artisanal product and, at 53%, is incredibly powerful.

4) The Farolito is the fruit of mezcal author and critic Ulises Torentera’s first venture into actually creating a mezcal for his own tastes. This particular mezcal is from San del Rio. It’s also a silvestres but of the cuesh variety and also incredibly powerful at 43%.

Descriptions

1) At c50% Pierde Almas’ espadin is no shrinking violet but the alcohol doesn’t overpower the strong agave flavor and round body.  There’s a really focused balance between a spectrum of roasted and caramelized flavors, a slight residue of smokiness and alcoholic kick.  One of our super tasters detected notes of “wet cement” or  minerals while others mentioned hints of citrus, perhaps grapefruit, with slight pepper notes.

2) Our mystery participant is also 100% espadin, and is slightly less alcoholic at 48% but glories in demonstrating alcoholic heat at the front of the mouth.  It has a strong mid-palate agave flavor and a huge body.  It’s not viscous but incredibly round like the Del Maguey Vida.

3) The Cuish Tobaziche is an incredibly complex mezcal that doesn’t get overwhelmed by it’s 50%.  Flavor elaboration is varied and complex with notes of nut, citrus, agave and pepper.  It has a relatively middle of the road body, especially when compared to the El Prometido espadin.

4) The Farolito Cuesh has an incredibly sharp agave flavor with lots of variation.  Like the Cuish Tobaziche tasters noted flavors of nuts, citrus, a lighter agave and pepper but this one really displayed that “wet cement” flavor that our super taster noted in an earlier espadin.

As you can tell the silvestres had a very strong showing.  Their flavors were off the charts when compared to the 100% espadins that preceded them in this tasting and in quick sideline tastings with other espadins.  Being the fruit of wild plants they’re proportionately more expensive, these bottles are easily 200% the price of the espadins in Mexico and will probably retail for north of $100 in the U.S. market.   Nearly everyone in the tasting was surprised by the high alcohol content of all the mezcals in this round because no one thought that they tasted overly alcoholic.

The spellings of silvestres vary widely so we always follow the brand’s spelling.  When we have some additional background information we’ll offer it.  In this case Tobaziche is most likely Madrecuixe (Agave karwinskii) which has a rather distinct appearance.

Agave karwinskii

Agave karwinskii. Photo by Alex Huhn from http://www.mezcaleria.de

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However the Cuesh in the Farolito could be a number of things.  We have a query into Ulises Torentera on the exact species.