Doña Tules 06 Tasting Notes

Details

• Location:  Mascota, Jalisco
• Agave: A. lechuguilla
• Maestro Mezcalero: Manuel Salcedo
• Vintage: May, 2017
• ABV: 44%
• Tasting keywords: Menthol, oak, salted caramel.
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Nose

Oak, salted caramel

Taste

Like checking into the fun house mirror at Playland in Lady from Shanghai this mezcal gyrates between menthol and wood, salted caramel and a metallic twang.

It’s off sweet and there is definitely oak but without all the cloying glycerin associations that might spring to mind. The Doña Tules is just plain fun. A real expression of a spirit crafted within tradition adapted to a new space.

Production Details

• Agave sources: Estate grown Lechugilla.
• Roast: Above ground brick and mortar oven.
• Crush: Handmade shredder.
• Fermentation: Six day open air fermentation.
• Distillation: 250 liter stainless steel and oak still.
• Rest: 62 months: 47 months in a single use bourbon barrel. 15 months in a second use French oak Bacanora barrel.

Background Notes

Doña Tules 06 represents Scott Andrews’ continued quest to age mezcal, most recently Raicillas like this one, in barrels that both express the original spirit while transforming it through contact with wood. The level of focus that Andrews brings to this project is extraordinary because he’s matching barrels to the spirit which is all about inference about which barrel – or which piece of which barrel in previous releases – expresses what’s already there in the spirit and will bring something else to the party. It’s been a lonely pursuit, but others are joining in – expect to see a bigger push in the barrel aged mezcal category soon from other companies.

In this expression it’s Manuel Salcedo’s Raicilla from Mascota in western Jalisco. Andrews and Salcedo collaborated in Doña Tules 04 but with a different type of barrel. Salcedo’s Raicilla has found its way to the US in labels like Raicilla de Una and La Venenosa’s Los Gigantes. Andrews made a short film about Salcedo which is required viewing.

Andrews considers “this to be the big sister of Doña Tules 04.” It uses the same base Raicilla but this one has been aged 47 months in a single use bourbon barrel and 15 months more in a second use French oak Bacanora barrel.

Andrews says that Raicilla has “all those herbal and floral notes that you don’t want to cover up with oak. That’s why with Raicilla I don’t use new barrels, I use only second use barrels.” And, while you definitely taste the wood in the Doña Tules 06, it’s the other flavors that really shine, a distinct menthol flavor and a metallic high note that’s almost like iodine. As far as Andrews knows this is “the only five year old Extra Añejo Raicilla available anywhere” which is a small category to begin with since very few raicillas are aged in wood.