La Luna Chino Tasting Notes

Details

• Location: Zacapendo, Michoacan
• Agave: Wild Agave cupreata aka Chino
• Maestro Mezcalero: Patricio Arreaga Peña
• Lot 3
• ABV: 51.42%
• Vintage: 2019
• Tasting keywords: Sage, dried mint, camomile.
• NOM: M278C

Nose

It has a bright and intensely herbal nose with a bouquet of dried mint, wild sage, and touch of dried mango.

Taste

This is a jagged little pour of a mezcal that exults in dried herbal flavors and a touch of camomile that magically resolves into a soft, bittersweet tail. So much fun.

Method

Roasted in an earth oven with oak for 168 hours, rested for 144 hours, hand crushed, fermented in wood vats made of Ayacahuite and Pino for 240 hours, and distilled in traditional filipino stills made of Pino and Ayacahuite.

Background

Chino silvestre is a member of the cupreata family, Chino is the short hand in much of Michoacan. But it’s a very different plant from the cupreata used in La Luna’s black label so they treat it very differently in the distillation process by letting the roasted agaves rest for seven weeks when they develop a layer of fungus. They also kept a higher bagasse to water ratio.