Mezcal, Cuishe

• Mezcal produced in Río Seco, Santa María Zoquitlán, Oaxaca
• Maestro Mezcalero Regulo Martinez Parada
• Distilled from 100% Cuishe (Agave karwinskii)
• Cooked in a conical earthen pit oven
• Milled using a horse-driven stone tahona
• Naturally fermented in open-air wooden tanks (tinas)
• Distilled twice using traditional copper pot stills
• 150 bottles produced in the 2021batch
• 54.3% ABV (ABV may vary batch to batch) 

A complex fusion of the resinous, vegetal, and herbal aromatics that often occur in Agave karwinskii, and the medley of deep earth and stewed fruit notes common to Zoquitlán, this one has a lot to offer. The nose leads with savory aromas of snap pea, sawdust, chives, tobacco leaf, fresh sage, and oxidizing red apples, but this trajectory doesn’t begin to predict the epic structure of the palate: Tropicalia—all kinds of papaya, guava, white chocolate, candied watermelon—rises up, only to crest with a wave of pine, bitter orange peel, tomatillo, loam soil, wheatberry, and an impression of pottery clay lingering on the finish. Not a mezcal for every beginner, but a delightful journey for any mezcal lover to explore!