Mezcalero No. 24 - Espadin & Tepextate

46.4% ABV

We were absolutely delighted to discover a stash of this lovely bottling with a distributor who was sadly going out of business. We bought everything that we could as it's truly a wonderful expression. This is an ensamble of wild Tepextate (Agave Marmorata) and hillside grown Espadin (Agave Angustifolia) from the village of San Luis del Rio, Oaxaca. Located in the Valles Centrales region, it is one of the larger Mezcal producing areas in the state and is where the second Artisanal Mezcal ever exported to the US came from with Del Maguey's San Luis del Rio Single Village expression. Maestro Balthazar Cruz Lopez pit roasts the agaves in an earthen oven and mills them with a mule drawn tahona. The mash is fermented with ambient yeasts in cypress tanks and double distilled in copper alembic stills.

This is an "old" Mezcal in the sense that it was distilled back in October of 2016, rested in glass demijohns for over 2 years prior to bottling, and then further "aged" in bottle up to the present day. Glass aging doesn't have anywhere near the effect of barrel aging as there is little to no oxidation and glass is an inert material, unlike the charred wood in a barrel. But glass does allow the liquid inside to harmonize and mellow over time. It is fruity and soft with the characteristic and indescribable perfumey Tepextate fruit. 

About Mezcalero:
Mezcalero was founded in 2009 and it was a groundbreaking project. They were the first export brand to list production details and the name of the producer, or “Mezcalero” on the label. There was very little information available at that time about the category or how it was made, so these details on the labels were intriguing to mezcal lovers like us!

It was started by Hector Vasquez from Los Danzantes Mezcal in Oaxaca, and American Ainsley Coale of Craft Distillers. The concept was to feature batches from some of the best Mezcaleros in Oaxaca, using a majority of wild or semi-wild “silvestre” grown agaves. In those early days of Mezcal in America, it was the first time we had ever thought about a BATCH of Mezcal, and the concept of wild grown agaves was novel as well. Their goal was to fairly compensate the producers for their work in hopes of preserving the traditional methods of production in their respective communities. This is a model that has been copied over and over again but we can’t stress enough how unusual and exciting this was to agave lovers like ourselves at that time.