Flor del Desierto Sotol Cascabel - Rattlesnake Pechuga

48% ABV

Flor del Desierto Sierra Cascabel is a Pechuga-style Sotol. Pechuga means "breast" in Spanish and refers to a style of (usually) agave spirits that are macerated with fresh fruits/herbs/spices/rice/etc and are redistilled with an animal protein, often a chicken breast, hanging in the still. In this case, the protein is rattlesnake meat, about 3 grams per liter of sotol. It is made by Maestro Sotolero Don Gerardo Ruelas Hernandez from Dasylirion leiophyllum, aged 18–22 years, wild harvested at low elevation in the Coyame Desert of Chihuahua, Mexico. The plants are roasted in shallow pits with oak and willow wood, and shredded with axes and and knives. Open fermented in pine wood tanks or 'tinas' and the resulting mash is triple distilled in copper alambics. The third distillation includes the rattlesnake meat. Finally the spirit is aged for 90 days in 40+ year old neutral oak barrels. 

Tasting Notes:
"Made from 100% wild-harvested Dasylirion leiophyllum harvested in the Coyame Desert by Master Sotelier, Don Gerardo Ruelas. Roasted in a pit oven using willow and oak firewood, and milled using axe and knife. This sotol is triple-distilled in the “pechuga” style, made with fresh rattlesnake meat (about 3g / L), and is matured for 90 days in neutral oak casks after distillation. A unique spirit with a complex character that includes citrus, quince, and salty pine resin rounded by the natural sweetness of roasted piñas and the soft vanillin of oak age, all wrapped up with a long, elegant mineral finish. 48% ABV."
From Skurnik.com.