Details
- Location: Miahuatlan, Oaxaca
- Agave: Ensemble of Madrecuixe, Bicuixe, and Espadín
- Maestro Mezcalero: Ranulfo Garcia Pachecho
- Vintage: May 2018
- Quantity: 800 liters
- ABV: 49.85%
- Tasting keywords: bitter sweet balance
- NOM: Uncertified
- Buy it today
Nose
Cocoa powder and roasted agave.
Taste
This ensemble is full of all sorts of bright notes. I get sea spray and oyster brine along with a little apple freshness, and a touch of sandalwood. It has a light effervescent sensation and a low viscosity that keeps it dancing over your tongue.
Method
A true ensemble in that the agaves start and end the process together – this sort of thing is representative of the original mezcal in that you’d want to harvest whatever was ripe and make it all at once. It’s a really tricky process because agaves of different sizes, even when you try to cut them down to similar proportions, cook at different speeds. But it’s also a process that can add enormous depth and complexity to a mezcal with layers of flavor that you can rarely find in a single agave.
Ranulfo uses a refrescadera which is hybrid copper pot and stainless steel column still. That means that this mezcal only undergoes a single distillation to get to proof. Many distillers have moved away from this distillation technique because it’s so tricky. Savor the results because he only makes on batch of mezcal a year and the 800 liters in this one is 2018’s batch.
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