La Luna Mezcal Cupreata Black Label

La Luna Cupreata Black Label is a joven mezcal from the La Luna house in Etucuaro, Michoacan, made from Cupreata agave that is both cultivated and wild harvested. Cupreata is the signature maguey of Michoacan and Guerrero, fruity, savoury and earthy in character, and the brand comes from the Perez Escot family at Destiladora Las Azucenas, who have worked the same ground in the hills of Villa Madero since 1910 across four generations.
For this bottling the agave is roasted underground for around ninety hours, macerated, fermented for some one hundred and twenty hours and then double distilled, with the cook done in a rock lined horno fired by the family's own white oak and the distillation in a Tarascan still of copper and pine. Hand work means the strength shifts from batch to batch. Aromas of citrus blossom, pineapple and vanilla turn fruity and floral, while the palate offers lemon, apple, tobacco, maple and leather under a restrained smoke.