Oaxaca Farmer Co-op

This is full of wonderful aromas - sea salt, grilled corn, grilled peaches, watermelon, rose water, teak wood, gravel-like minerality and clay with just a wisp of an earthy, vegetal smoke. It makes me think of Port Charlotte’s green peat notes as compared to an ashy Lagavulin or Ardbeg. Zero (well, almost zero) burn. This is also decadently sweet and slightly oily with some big floral, vegetal and clay notes. The watermelon, white pepper and cedar notes are in wonderful harmony. There might be some licorice and cigar wrapper in there as well before the tarry, kerosine-like funky smoke shows up to remind me this is mezcal. I could drink far too much of this. Like, hepatitis amounts. The sweetness is very in your face, so not particularly challenging in that regard but it retains enough complexity to keep it interesting. It reminds me of a cuixe or espadin (from my limited experience) but has the tequila blanco sweetness. No idea how it’s made and no matter because even with a GPS I’m not sure this could be found or recreated. I owe a huge thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine for 1) smuggling and 2) sharing this gem.

Two hours. That’s how long I sat in a car, driving north of Oaxaca, visiting local countryside and some small distilleries. And that was with 2 young children and a wife that doesn’t drink. There’ll be either a special place in hell for me for putting them through that, or a special place in heaven for them. This is a no name bottle that I picked up from one of those visits. Some years back, we took a trip to a foodie trip to Oaxaca and Mexico City , followed by a beach vacation to Cabo. ( I HATED Cabo…over priced, touristy). One of the things we were told we should absolutely do while in Oaxaca is take a mezcal tour. It’s really diametrically opposite than the tours you get at the behemoth bourbon or scotch distilleries. We went to two…one was a professionally run small distillery, and then this one which was a co-op run by farmers. Both made products that were sold only locally. No distribution channels. No marketing. And what’s made is consumed by locals. This one was run by farmers, who seemed more interested in selling us their crop then mezcal. Small operation …some farmers working during their free time, and a donkey ( I forgot his name), who grinds the agave. We were treated to lunch, bought about $10 worth of local honey, and had all you can drink mezcal. I loved the mezcal so much, I bottled some, duct taped it, and bought it back. This is unlike most mezcal I’ve had. It’s muted on the smoke ( maybe it’s because I’ve had it 3-4 years in an unopened bottle, loosely held by duct tape?). It’s more herbal, grassy, and almost granite-y. Personally , I love it…and gave it a very biased score…but that’s also because of the experience. @ctbeck11 @pkingmartin @Richard-ModernDrinking @ContemplativeFox this was the sample recently sent Oh— if anyone is interested in a pour—will be happy to send one. I have 1/2 bottle still left