All tequilas are mezcal, but mezcal is not tequila. Got that? Since I found no mention here of the agave distillates from our southern neighbor, I figured I’d start a thread. I am by no means an expert, just a recreational drinker that enjoys the history and complexities of the agave distillates and who wants to impart that enjoyment to a wider audience.
So I spent this past Sunday with some friends eating homemade tacos and tasting a few mezcals and a bacanora. The mezcals included a jovan, a reposado and an anejo. The jovan was from Ojo de Tigre, a fine example of a young mescal; smokey, oily, viscous and tingling to my lips, smooth and very nice overall. The reposado and anejo were both from Agave de Cortes which a friend had brought back from a recent stay in Oaxaca. They both exhibited a nice sweet and creamy bouquet with varying degrees of complexity following, to include vanilla, caramel and hints of cocoa at the finish (anejo). I came back mostly to the anejo, it had a nice full equation of finish over the jovan. Some feel that mescal should be drank in it’s jovan stage, but the beauty of the maguey comes into its own when properly aged.
The bacanora was the ringer in the collection. An outlaw drink that was made legal more recently again after 80+ years of being illegal due to an old law from the early 1900’s, made from one agave variety and only in the state of Sonora. Hard to find in this country (another friend found it in Tucson on a recent trip to El Paso), this was from Bacanora Los Cantiles 1905 and an anejo. This was my first exposure to this rare distillation. The bouquet was very much butterscotch but this was a bait and switch, for the palette detected mostly herbal, floral and vegetable notes at all stages, very few sweet notes though it was smooth and left a tingle to my lips. An amazing drink that needs further exploration!
Additional notes; when drinking mezcal, citrus slices (orange, lime or lemon) may be included along with tajin or just water (typical in Oaxaca). My one friend said that breakfast in Oaxaca would often consist of pan dolce, hot Oaxacan cocoa and a shot of mezcal to be sipped.
So I spent this past Sunday with some friends eating homemade tacos and tasting a few mezcals and a bacanora. The mezcals included a jovan, a reposado and an anejo. The jovan was from Ojo de Tigre, a fine example of a young mescal; smokey, oily, viscous and tingling to my lips, smooth and very nice overall. The reposado and anejo were both from Agave de Cortes which a friend had brought back from a recent stay in Oaxaca. They both exhibited a nice sweet and creamy bouquet with varying degrees of complexity following, to include vanilla, caramel and hints of cocoa at the finish (anejo). I came back mostly to the anejo, it had a nice full equation of finish over the jovan. Some feel that mescal should be drank in it’s jovan stage, but the beauty of the maguey comes into its own when properly aged.
The bacanora was the ringer in the collection. An outlaw drink that was made legal more recently again after 80+ years of being illegal due to an old law from the early 1900’s, made from one agave variety and only in the state of Sonora. Hard to find in this country (another friend found it in Tucson on a recent trip to El Paso), this was from Bacanora Los Cantiles 1905 and an anejo. This was my first exposure to this rare distillation. The bouquet was very much butterscotch but this was a bait and switch, for the palette detected mostly herbal, floral and vegetable notes at all stages, very few sweet notes though it was smooth and left a tingle to my lips. An amazing drink that needs further exploration!
Additional notes; when drinking mezcal, citrus slices (orange, lime or lemon) may be included along with tajin or just water (typical in Oaxaca). My one friend said that breakfast in Oaxaca would often consist of pan dolce, hot Oaxacan cocoa and a shot of mezcal to be sipped.