Oponguio Frutal Tasting Notes

Details

• Location:  Erongaricuaro Michoacán
• Agave: Alto / A. inaequidens
• Maestro Mezcalero: Miguel Ángel Jaramillo
• Batch: 11/20
• ABV: 47%
• Tasting keywords: Red vines, pine, banana.
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Nose

Rich red licorice

Taste

Red vines’ velvety sweetness that opens up into flavors of pine, cinnamon, rosemary, and banana.

Production Details

• Agave sources: Minimum 18 year old wild Inaquidens.
• Roast: Baked in a stone and brick oven between 3 to 4 days, with avocado and oak wood.
• Crush: Mechanical
• Fermentation: 4 to 6 days in pine wood vats with 160 meter deep well water.
• Distillation: Double distilled in copper alembics with Filipino style wooden condensers.
• Rest: In glass for one year.

Background Notes

Inaequidens tend to be inscrutable and this is a perfect addition to the category. While it comes on with those artificial fruit flavors like ripping open a red vines package in a movie theater, it opens into flavors of banana, cinnamon, and pine. This contrast can really drive you crazy: Is this the creation of a mad scientist in a lab or an example of nature’s infinite potential?

Oponguio’s approach is to highlight how the inaequidens agave changes with its environment. The Frutal was harvested during the summer when brix levels were higher which give it more fruity and floral flavors. Contrast this with the Herbal which was harvested in the winter with lower brix levels or the Seco was was harvested from agaves growing under a canopy of trees.