Lot A-07-EL-16. The Elote is incredible. It’s very hot and definitely not for the faint of heart. Every bit of the +50% ABV is front and center throughout the taste but the subtleties of the infused corn make this a totally unique experience. The taste has strong notes of roasted corn, hazelnut, and caramelized cane sugar.

Somewhat buttery with notes of sour apples and vinegar on the nose. The mezcal is light and easy to drink. It doesn’t linger too long. Its buttery taste is signature for this region and is enjoyable. There’s a subtle saltiness that I also enjoy in this mezcal.

Very suave! This has lots of smoked fruit and a creamy texture that makes it very appealing. There is lilac and some peach perfume on the nose. It’s fruit forward, but the fruit doesn’t overpower the taste, which is balanced with a bit of smoke and vegetal notes.

Not as suave as other Sierra Negra mezcal. It’s a bit ashy with lots of mineral notes and a dry mouth feel. There’s a slight hint of baked apples on the nose, and the apple fruit comes through in the taste with hints of charred orange peel and smoke. It’s a good mezcal, but not one of my favorites from Mezcalero.

Batch 002-ESP 2005 from Ignacio Parada. This batch was aged 8 years in glass before its release. It is the coolest, most-elegant Espadin I’ve ever tasted. It’s rich and buttery in aroma with notes of sweet agave and lavender. The flavor is perfectly balanced between fruit and smoke with a big round, viscous mouth feel that lingers on the tongue. Tasting notes include butter, nectarine, and clay,

Lot PV-E001. The bottle I tried was Edition 1 from 2014, which is apparently the first batch of agave Espadin that Pedro Vasquez ever bottled. He’s been making insanely good mezcals with wild agave for so long that I was incredibly excited to try this. There is some slight smoke on the nose, but it generally just smells very clean and balanced. The taste also carries a good amount of smoke and charred wood. It reminds me a bit of Del Maguey Chichicapa with it’s flavor similar to smoked brisket and ribs. It’s very meaty in flavor, but very soft on the tongue. This is one of the best Espadin mezcals I’ve ever tasted.

Lot S-01-CME-16. 78% Coyote, 18% Espadin, 4% Mexicano. Great Mezcal! This is high proof and the heat of the ABV stays with this one through the entire taste. It’s very hot with notes of wet oak, vanilla, and orange cream.

Lot YJ07-16. Very vegetal and earthy. This is almost musty in its earthiness. There’s also a lot of fruity notes of orange, plantains, and citrus. The Mezcalero brand did the Special Bottling #1, which is made by Alberto Ortiz with agave madre-cuishe, so it was essentially just a different batch of the same mezcal. The Mezcalero brand was also aged in glass for 18 months, which gave it a bit of a rounded feel, but this is still a great mezcal.

Very clean and fruity. Alberto Ortiz makes nothing but hits. This mezcal is velvety, smokey, and has lots of orange, plantains, and vanilla. This was a one-time lot for the Mezcalero brand, but Alberto Ortiz makes a madre-cuishe mezcal annually for Yuu Baal. Though the Yuu Baal is a different batch, it’s very similar in flavor.

Lot SLR004/15. Salty, dry scents mix with fruit on the nose. The taste is a little hot with fruity notes of cantaloupe, melon, and honey. It’s slightly mineral and the heat carries through to the finish. Overall, this is a great Espadin. I recommend trying this one with some other Alipus to get a good feel for how terroir impacts the agave used in Mezcal.

Lot SAM007/15. Lots of lavender, flowers, and perfume on the nose. The first sip is also very floral before moving to notes of almond, vanilla, and papaya. This Alipus is mostly fruit-forward. For an Espadin, this has a lot of diverse tastes and a lot of fruit and perfume. The Pink, Purple, and Blue Alipus are my favorites, but they’re all worth trying.

Lots of strong citrous on the nose with notes of lime. This Mezcal is super rich with notes of caramel and vanilla. Like other mezcals from this Mezcalero, this is very clean on the nose and the flavor is finite. It’s balanced and insanely easy to drink for being so complex. This is one of my favorite Agave Mexicano mezcals. Batch 17J03-15 bottle 282/300.

The smell of this mezcal is crazy. It’s like a new leather couch meets a cone of vanilla ice cream mixed with dates and raisons. It doesn’t taste like anything you’d get out of Oaxaca or really any other mezcal-producing state that I’ve tried. The taste is complex and foreign. It’s sweet, but almost musty with notes of dates and figs. This is a very unique mezcal, like nothing else out there.

Lot 1. Bottle 294/1440. Very leathery on the nose with a rush of pepper on the first taste. The pepper doesn’t overpower the mezcal and it fades into a buttery vegetal sweetness that stays long in the mouth. This is a very unique mezcal, even for those that come from Michoacan. I highly recommend giving this a try.

It’s a little sweet and ashy on the nose with hints of fruit. The wild agave and rich flavor of maguey comes through the initial taste, and the balance between the blended agave provides notes that bounce around the mouth. It’s somewhat light in texture and has some heat at the end.

Like many of the other Alipus mezcals, this is a pure expression of terroir. There’s lot of vanilla and pine on the nose. The pine stays strong in the taste and meshes with mineral notes and little heat. Overall, this is good mezcal. Like other Alipus mezcals, the pricing makes this a great deal.

This is the best Pechuga I’ve ever had. It’s so thick, it almost feels like chicken broth in the mouth, and its spices perfectly complement its strong chicken notes. I typically find that pechugas go in one of two possible directions. Either they’re very meaty, or they have a lot of herbal and spice notes. This mezcal runs in both directions at once, finding balance in polar opposite sides of the spectrum rather than the accentuation of something in the middle. Flavor notes of black tea, clove, peach, chicken, and orange cream. The bottle I tried was for Batch #RMP-01 from 2014. I’ve had several other batches since, and they’re all incredible.

Lot A-24-DV-TB-14 with fermentation date of March 2014. 637 litres from Aquilino. Amazing! This is very clean on the nose with a slight hint of lavender and lots of coffee! It’s incredibly soft for 52.1% ABV. If you see this batch, you owe it to yourself to buy the bottle. Tasting notes of fresh vegetation and fruit – orange, green cantaloupe, freshly cut grass, sweet ground pepper, and more fresh coffee. This is totally unique and I highly recommend it!

Batch 002TOGMJ13. This is one of my favorite mezcals made with agave Tobala. The taste has notes of banana, papaya, and apple. It is very fruity but not overwhelmingly so. The initial taste is a little hot, but that gives way to a very round and viscous mouth feel. The flavor is very distinct and cuts off as soon as the liquor is gone, making it very easy to keep drinking lots of this one. My taste was from Edition #08 from 2013, which was a small batch of just 265 bottles.

This is crazy rich and balanced. It’s slightly vegetal on the nose with hints of smoke and tobacco. The taste is also vegetal but with a much sweeter twist that is fruity with a mouth feel that almost resembles clay. This is one of my favorite mezcals made with agave Tobala, and I love agave Tobala. This mezcal is refined and suave in a way that other mezcals can’t touch. This bottle was from LOT: V2551G from Candido Reyes.