Xiaman Mezcal Artesenal 2020 is unaged and bottled at 44% ABV. It sells for around $140. This was the best bottle that I opened in 2023. Was. I decided to purchase, and open, an early Christmas present for myself, and it immediately became both the best and most expensive bottle of 2023. The review for that bottle, which is also not a Scotch, will be coming later this year. For someone who claims that his alcohol of choice is Scotch, I rather hate Scotch. I guess I’m too familiar with it; it’s to the point that if I had the time and energy to purchase a domain name for a review blog, it would probably be YourScotchSucksAss.com. By comparison, I’m still new enough to mezcal to love it. There are mezcals that still astonish me and make me marvel at how a spirit can smell and taste like it does. This mezcal gave me memories of the first time I tried a dusty 10-year-old Laphroaig bottle from another age, at a time when the most common thing a Laphroaig bottle on this side of the pond did was gather dust. It was not the peat that entranced me, but the note of rubber. I don’t know why this unusual note excites me, but this mezcal also has a rubber note, but in a completely different style than the Laphroaig, of course. The Laphroaig was rubber, rope, and the ocean; like a tugboat. Xiaman rubber is like the Botanical gardens combined with Pitch Lake in Trinidad and Tobago - an aromaresque menagerie of sweet tropical fruits and flowers, fresh spices baked until dry, and fresh asphalt. I am combining shit in my mind, by the way - if you ever visit the wonderful island of Trinidad, you will never smell the Botanical Gardens and Pitch Lake at the same time because they are separated by hours of traffic. Let me know if you can think of one real thing that smells sweet, flowery, and rubbery. The nose of Xiaman is rich and fragrant, both young and old. There is the zestiness from the common agave Espadin combined with the earthy, fruity star ingredient, wild Texpetate agave, which has been maturing for 25-30 years. The slightly smoky, rubbery, and clay notes are probably from the cooking of the agave in traditional underground pits, with traditional hand milling, and open-air fermentation. The palate of Xiaman is not nearly as potent as the nose; I would call the 44% ABV as strategically underpowered. Your taste buds will need to reach a little bit to pull the flavors out, but the subtlety is rewarding. The mouthfeel is incredible for the low ABV, like something halfway between a soup and a sauce. And last but not least, let’s talk about the value. This mezcal has not touched wood and is unaged, but whereas whiskies are mostly about what happens after distillation, mezcals are all about what happens before the distillation. This mezcal takes 25-30 years to make, thanks to the Tepextate agave, which is a rare ingredient in any mezcal. The sweat equity of production would probably put Springbank distillery to shame. The bottle that this mezcal comes in looks initially unassuming and maybe even cheap, but then you find out that the stopper is a hand-beaded jaguar head; the ferns and flowers on the bottle are hand-etched, and the bottle collar is hand-labelled leather. What the fuck. If this were a whisky, it would cost 25 thousand dollars at some auction. There are 500 of these bottles. I found a liquor store with two bottles. I blind purchased one, waited a couple of months before opening it, had my socks blown off, went back to the liquor store, and purchased the remaining bottle still on the shelf. I love mezcal.