An otherworldly nose doesn’t stand in the way of complete mezcal experience.
Details
• Location: San Luis del Rio
• Agave: Ensemble of Cirial, Tepextate, and Tobala
• Maestro Mezcalero: Don Baltazar Cruz Gonzales
• Quantity: 744 bottles
• ABV: 48%
• NOM: O14X
• Buy it today
Nose
One of the richest olfactory experiences I’ve had in recent memory. It’s like walking into a spice shop and out the back into an herb garden. You’re hit with all the dusty notes of allspice and cinnamon which finishes with a menthol highlight.
Taste
It opens very light on the front and opens mid palate into flavors of chocolate and piloncillo, then a bit of spice. It’s almost like a delicate Mexican chocolate bar. That menthol nose caries over into a touch of mint in the flavor.
Background
This is from Don Baltazar Cruz Gonzales who also made the Mezcalero 19 and continues to make the Alipus San Luis del Rio. He clearly has an exquisite understand of distilling because all three of those labels are gems even if this one speaks to me most directly.
Like all of these bottles the Mezcalero 21 has been rested extensively. This one spent two years in a tank.
Craft Distillers has a tasting video with Ansley Coale up on their site where he waxes about this bottle. He mentions that San Luis del Rio is hot and sandy which he attributes to the smoother rounder flavor of the mezcals that come out of the area. Then he calls this bottle “One of the best.”
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