La Luna Mezcal Manso Sahuayo

A joven mezcal from Maguey Manso Sahuayo, an unclassified agave recorded on the label as Agave Sp. and known locally as Manso, Chato or Cenizo. The agaves were cultivated and harvested around Jiquilpan and Sahuayo in Michoacan, then made by the Perez Escot family at Destiladora Las Azucenas in Etucuaro, where La Luna has distilled across four generations since 1910.

The piñas were roasted in a stone lined horno fired with estate white oak, cooked for 121 hours and rested a further six days, then milled by hand and fermented naturally in open wooden vats for twelve days. Double distillation followed in a copper cazo paired with a pine still. The result is earthy and woody, with a faint cheese tang, vanilla and sweet fruit on the nose, then cigar leaf, chocolate, citrus, white pepper and a wisp of smoke across the palate, strength varying by batch.