Don Amado Mezcal Rustico Joven

Don Amado Rustico is a joven Espadin mezcal from the Arellanes family at Santa Catarina Minas in Oaxaca, the village known for clay pot distillation, where eleven generations have distilled in an ancestral style. The clay still defines the house character, lending a soft, earthen mineral edge that copper cannot give, and the spirit is bottled unaged at 47% to keep the agave forward.

Halved and quartered Espadin hearts are roasted for four days over a mix of guamuchil and mesquite wood, which threads pit smoke through the spirit, then milled and fermented with their own fibres in large pinewood vats using wild airborne yeast for a rich agave character. Double distillation in small wood fired ceramic pot stills carries the spirit to 53% before reduction to bottling strength with thrice distilled water. The result reads of ash, walnut, roasted corn and savoury spice, with a bright Espadin core of caramel and fresh herbs.