Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal

A cold, snowy day like today inspires me to reflect on my last sunny trip to Mexico. This is also a day that my employer is encouraging us to be creative, so I've signed up for a painting class. What better way to marry these two themes than by pouring from the green, peach, orange and red labeled bottle of Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal (lot CHI-194). Del Maguey was founded in the 90s by Ron Cooper, a visual artist themself. With my first whiff, there's slight rubber, gasoline, smoke and tangy acidity like lime. After it sits, "charred grapefruit" is the best way I can articulate its pronounced burn and quiet citrus sweetness. As I go back for a final nosing, I smell additional herbaceousness and refreshing mint. A juicy, savory and sweet agave sip is met by a fashionably delayed peppery flare. I feel the spice in my nose and it gives me a shiver through my body. The pepper provides a bitterness and brief metallic flavour that transitions to a very long, lightly drying, indefinite smoky finish. I can taste woodiness, tobacco and minerality on my palate, too. When I close my eyes at this moment, I can feel a soothing arm around me, holding snugly.  As strange as it sounds for a tasting, I enjoy its finish best. That said, Del Maguey Chichicapa is a unique, full-bodied mezcal that holds a lot of character. I recommend letting this pour breathe and taking your time with it. I'd think that if you enjoy a smoke-forward Islay scotch, this might suit your taste for something "outside the lines". As for me, it absolutely fulfilled its duty to break me out of today's winter blues. 7.75/10

Very smoky and spicy on the front with the sweet agave coming in late.

Rating: 17/23 The last quarter has been sitting in this bottle for about 9 months now and the bottle has been open for more like 18, so I'm sure it's changed a lot. Let's see how it is. N: Richer than Los Vecinos Espadin, with a little bit of a bourbony American Oak influence. I get some dark brown sugar here alongside the usual mezcal smoke, herbaceousness, and tartness. I get sort of a suggestion of Limousin oak as the lemon and mellow wood intersect. Not the most complex nose, but an enjoyable one. There's sort of a pastry quality to the nose even that reminds me a tad of a buttery lemon curd danish. Weird. P: Also richer than Lost Vecinos Espadin. This is very rich for a mezcal. I get this big, rich citrus flavor that has enough sweetness to balance it out so that it isn't excessively tart. There's then a nice 50% dark chocolate flavor here to really enhance the richness and pull the whole thing together. Getting past those key flavors, the complexity comes out a bit with some herbal flavors that make the citrus taste kind of like a fruity gin (think Roku, a bit), while allowing a bit of meatiness in. There's a bit of mint/menthol in there too. Obviously, there's smoke and gasoline, but after so long open at least, the gasoline is less choking. This is now a very hedonistic dram that reminds me of regular mezcal with rye (Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition mixed with George Dickel's young MGP - a bit like Whistlepig PiggyBack, but richer with some interesting new dimensions and not as dusty) and mild Ardbeg influences (for the chocolate and tar, as well as that faint hint of cherry from the Corryvreckan). It's a very nice palate. At times I think that it might be less complex than it should be, but then I discover new flavors and perspectives on those that were already there. A very fine palate. F: Smoke, gasoline, citrus, refreshing-yet-crisp mint, chocolate. It's good, maintaining the hedonistic richness of the palate for a long time, despite obviously having a weaker presence overall. The wood remains as well, providing a mellow French oak backing. This is an excellent mezcal. It is very enjoyably balanced with some terrific richness. While there is not really such a thing as an approachable mezcal, this is about as close as it comes for a whiskey drinker. It's powerful, so it would likely be the wrong choice for fans of other spirits though. For fans of tequila, Casamigos Mezcal would probably be a better bet. For $60, this is definitely worth the money. At $80, it gets borderline. At $100, it's a hard no. The thing is, I'd rather have the Ardbeg Corryvreckan or Uigeadail than this. They both have higher ABV and before the tariffs, the Corryvreckan was only about $65, so I wouldn't be making this my shelf staple. Los Vecinos Espadin is also only about $25 and it's a very solid mezcal, making it an easy choice as a staple mezcal for whenever mezcal seems appropriate (rarely, though I must say that I do appreciate it). In terms of score, this is at minimum a 16. I think that a 17 is more likely and an 18 is possible. 19 seems a bit out of reach. I would take this over Los Vecinos, but not by more than 2 points. I think I've landed on this as a 17. I can see it being a really high 16, but I doubt that it is an 18. It's either a high 16 or low 17. A 17 it is.