Rey Campero Espadin Mezcal (700ml

Espadin Mezcals are a good place to start your journey, being characterful enough for both sipping neat or mixing in cocktails. Arguably the value buy in the Rey Campero collection, this is generally considered one of the better examples on the market - no doubt partly due to bottling at high strength. The process begins with cooking hand-picked agaves in a conical earth oven, followed by grinding in a tahona (stone mill) and fermentation in open air with wild yeasts. Double distillation is carried out in a copper still. Many batches are aged in glass before bottling, which is said to give them a much softer feel. 48.4% Alc./Vol.

Other reviews... Seeing as I have loved several different batches of this one, I figured I should finally post a review! This continues to be an impressively bold, robust mezcal for the price, that nevertheless has plenty of nuance and finer details if you take the time to go looking for them. Nose is full of leather, pine, and soft touches of fruit; not as upfront with the agave sweetness as other espadín, more just a pleasantly lingering cooked yam feeling on the finish. Palate is similar to the aromatics, with some minty sharpness added in; perhaps a little sharp from the alcohol as well, but mostly in an enjoyable, perk-me-up sort of way. And if this sits in the glass 10 minutes or so, wow does it just become crazy gorgeous, with that minty note getting fuller, and mingling with the cooked yam, and some other flavors coming out: banana bread, cocoa powder, and I swear just a little thimble of an old-fashioned glazed donut. This is just a great Espadín, and a textbook example of the bold, punchy flavors that Candelaria Yegolé often delivers. - mezcalreviews.com