Vago Ensamble en Barro

52.3% abv, Lot S-19-EBCSNM-20

Review #99: Nose has leather, cinnamon, apple, raisins, tobacco, and a dusty earthiness. Palate has more of the cinnamon covered apples, raisins, leather, sweet tobacco, lime, champagne, a bit metallic, and the finish has a dusty earth and clay minerality.

This is a solid bottle and one of my firsts. I found it a bit hard to judge for a while until about halfway through. It took time for me to get those fruit notes, but the really shine with the dusty earth, cinnamon, and leather. This was a predominantly espadin forward batch so i look forward to trying more variable batches in the future.

Lot S-03, 37% Espadin, 32% Coyote, 15% Arroqueno, 13% Mexicano, and 3% Sierra Negra.

Newly opened bottle. 50%

Nose: Immediately peanut brittle (?) or some kind of confectioner’s sugar. Possibly sweet popcorn. Might be just the neck pour. Followed by the agave/bright fruit. Then the acetate hits. Not off-putting. Just that gummy airplane/model glue smell. In this case, works well with the sweetness.

Mouth: The acetate seems to be entirely gone on the mouth. Sweetness in the spirit, mixed with (and a little dominated by) lots and lots of white pepper, little bit of black pepper, saltiness/saline oiliness on the finish. The alcohol heat is there, but it’s not unmanageable. Very mineral body. Again, not off-putting. It all works really well together to balance each other, with the minerality and oiliness holding the rest together.

This is genuinely good.

Ensemble 57% espadin, 43% mexicano 51.3% abv Lot: S-07-EM-18 Batch: 377 Liters

Surprised no one else has reviewed this particular bottle and that this blend and its rough proportions only seems to appear in a review by Rakhal. This one might be the most mexicano heavy of Tio Rey’s ensembles. Taste a good deal of that espadin, but then the drying quality of the mexicano takes over and some of its nuance. This is one hot mezcal, and normally the high abv’s don’t hit me as hard. That reaction to the abv seems to be a common thread amongst the other reviews. Nose has a bit of stinky feet but the flavors are all over the place. A ton of black pepper heat throughout, a bitter taste like pith of citrus but then an anise/licorice flavor comes through. There is also a background charcoal note, maybe a combo natural gas/mesquite grill. Some tropical fruit as well, dried pineapple with chili. And after letting get some air for a spell, there is some candy corn flavor there (which normally would be a deal breaker for me but isn’t too bad here). Down to the last couple pours of this offering, but I would gladly pay for another ensemble from Tio Rey. Really can taste and experience both agaves which is not common in the other ensembles that I have sampled. 4.25 stars out of 5.

This is for two batches of Tío Rey´s excellent ancestral mezcal. One of the batches might be the best I have ever had! I definitely have been leaning toward the clay pot distillations lately.

Review 1: lot S02 ECM 20. From March 2020
60% Espadin, 36% coyote, 4% mexicano
ABV 50.4%. This rates at 4.75 stars and is one of my all time favorites!
The aroma is so deep and rich with earthy clay but also strawberry, citrus and blueberry.
The taste is like smooth fire—good heat from the abv and also nice smoke. Of course there’s some clay with light sweetness.
The finish is incredible and even and lingers with roasted chiles.

Review 2: lot S10 ECMAB 21
82% espadin, 9% coyote, 4% mexicano, 3% arroqueno, 2% barril
ABV 49.9%. This batch is good and rates 3 stars. New label.
The aroma is not as fruity or earthy as the other lot but still has some berry and citrus sweetness.
The taste has some clay but is bittersweet and more spicy than the previous.
The finish is ok.
This was the “new”bottle to replace the stellar batch from earlier. So i guess I am disappointed to not like it as much. Don’t get me wrong this batch is good, just not as great as the original.

Lot S-19-EBCSNM-20; Espadin, Barril, Coyote, Sierra Negra, Mexicano blend at 52.3% abv.
Has a muted aroma, mostly of clay pots and alcohol with a hint of grass. Taste is very heavy on the clay pots and earth. There is also a nice blackberry and blueberry note, but it’s hard to get past the clay pot flavor. Harsh finish with a significant alchohol burn with licorice in the finish. As I continue through the dram, the taste does improve a bit and the clay turns into an earthiness with some tropical fruits in the finish. Overall 5/10 and not my favorite of the recent Vago releases.

Lot: S-02-ECM-20.
60% Espadin, 36% Coyote, 4% Mexicano. 50.4% ABV.
The nose is murky, but I did manage to pick out some fresh nectarine and green papaya aromas under all the wet clay funk and fall leaf decay. It’s got a mean mouthfeel, too. I swear I hear it hiss as it hits my tongue. The palate is like licking a potter’s wheel, and it takes several sips before other notes emerge: red apples, sawdust, vanilla, toffee, and orange peel. Happily, the finish is better; it’s long and warming, full of peat, golden raisins, peppercorns, allspice, and wildflower honey. If only it had been so palatable from the beginning!

Admittedly, it feels terribly unfair to base my review on this particular ensamble. It’s not at all the best I’ve had from Tio Rey, but it’s the first I’ve kept notes for. I look forward to better batches in the future!

Aromas of leather, slate, tobacco, mango skins and hard cheese rinds — softer than it might sounds.
A bit harsh from the bottle’s first pour, but settles quickly. Almonds and pistachios like in a Turkish baklava, lovely blend of fruit and herbs/sweet spice, especially figs and succade (candied lemon peels), black cardamoms, dried thyme. Integrated alcohol and really, really special. Great price too. This bottle has a lot in common with the Alipus Destilado en barro and is a unique style I’d love to stock. I’ll go for this one. A bit funkier and a bit more dried fruits, so richer all in all. Others would say Alipus is crisper and more focused.

Lot S-02-EC-19 March 2019, 80% espadin, 20% coyote

This particular bottle is from 2018 and uses 67% Espadin & 33% Tepeztate.

– Nose: Complex and reserved, that typical espadin citrus rind note is the first thing to show up alongside some notes of honey, ripe agave, and grassiness. Pepper and spice show up last to the party and blow the doors off.

– Palette: Almost exactly what you’d expect from the nose which is a rarity. The Citrus, honey and ripe agave touch first with some bangin spice to follow, the sweet and spicy is a fun back and forth. The clay on this is present but its very subdued along with some minerality that shows up just before the finish.

– Finish: Spicy! The clay shows up here with some fun mineral notes alongside the spice and leaves you with some of that sweet citrus rind flavor dancing in the back of your throat.

Lot S-01/08-ECBB-17, October 2017, 652 liters, 84% Espadin, 9% Coyote, 5% Blanco 2% Barril.

Normally a big fan of Tio Rey and his Ensambles but a bit let down here. Perhaps it’s another case of a bottle open for too long, but the ethanol glosses over the bouquet of things-once-nice. I don’t quite understand the idea of listing percentages so small, might as well leave the drinker to guess the remaining 16% with slices so thin. Any good descriptors have long burnt off here, only leaving sharp honeysuckle and melty crayon to savor.