Tio Pesca Mezcal Ancestral Arroqueno

Tio Pesca Arroqueño is an ancestral mezcal from Sola de Vega in Oaxaca, made from wild Arroqueño, an americana agave that matures for well over a decade and gives a big, earthy, savoury cooked agave body with restrained sweetness. It is distilled by maestro mezcalero Fernando Mitra, whose town is known for clay pot work, under the Tio Pesca project of the Santa Sabia distillery.
The piñas are roasted in an underground pit oven, crushed by hand with wooden mallets, fermented in Sabina wood vats and then double distilled in wood fired clay pots, the ancestral format that softens the texture and adds a mineral, wet clay edge. The finished spirit rests five years in glass before bottling. Tasting runs to marinated feta and olive, gentle smoke and resinous dry wood, with tart and saline notes up front, orange shifting to grapefruit and lime, a touch of clay and bay leaf rounding the savoury depth.