Pal'alma Sonora - Lechuguilla is made with Agave bovicornuta by maestro mezcalero Fidel Lagarda Burgos in Milpillas, Sonora.
About this destilado de agave
Pal’alma Sonora – Lechuguilla is made with Agave bovicornuta by maestro mezcalero Fidel Lagarda Burgos in Milpillas, Sonora. The agave is cooked in an underground pit oven, milled by hand with mallets, fermented in rawhides, and distilled in a converted truck radiator.
Pal'alma
Pal’alma (or Mezcalito Pal’alma) is curated by Erick Rodriguez. Erick also bottles under the brand Almamezcalera. Known by many as the Indiana Jones of Mezcal, Erick Rodriguez works with agave spirits producers from the 20+ states of Mexico. Anywhere he finds agave fields and a freshwater stream, there’s a good chance that someone is making mezcal nearby. He has a private tasting room in Mexico City, which we visited in 2017, and wrote about in our post Almamezcalera & Mezcalito Pal’alma.
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mt_rainyer
43 reviewsLot 3 | Bottle 13/44
On the nose you get a whiff of warm campfire (not the smoke smell, but the wood smell if that makes sense?), saline, old library books, a bit of lactic cheesiness.
Taste wise the initial palette has that earthy, campfire taste mixed with parmesian cheese rind and salt that was on the nose moving through to the umami of wet porcinis before opening up into a sweetness and cheesy flavor that was not found on the nose. The finish lasts for a long time and has just a hint of sugary fruit flavors like cantaloupe and savory flavors like Parmesan. Delicious right after opening and only got more complex after opening up. Typically I don’t like flavor of the “dustier” agave profiles such as sierra negra, arroqueno, etc… this has elements what you’d expect from those agaves, but is incredibly delicate.
One of my all time favorite bottles of agave spirit. Enough so that after trying this bottle, for the first time I bothered to track down two other bottles from different batches (lot 4 and lot 8 for those curious as to what is available Stateside) to make sure that I had some more for when this runs out.
For context, I’ve only tried one other agave spirit from sonora (one of the lamata Lechuguilla also with bovicornuta) and tried perhaps 3-4 other Lechuguillla/bovincornuta spirits total. While all on the tasty side, it isn’t an agave I am super familiar with. Definitely will be on the look out for more.
Lot 3 | Bottle 13/44
On the nose you get a whiff of warm campfire (not the smoke smell, but the wood smell if that makes sense?), saline, old library books, a bit of lactic cheesiness.
Taste wise the initial palette has that earthy, campfire taste mixed with parmesian cheese rind and salt that was on the nose moving through to the umami of wet porcinis before opening up into a sweetness and cheesy flavor that was not found on the nose. The finish lasts for a long time and has just a hint of sug