Mezcal Vago Espadin Elote 2021

Vago Elote comes from Hijos de Aquilino Garcia, made by Temo and Mateo Garcia, sons of the late maestro mezcalero Aquilino Garcia Lopez, who carry on the family tradition for Mezcal Vago. The base is a single-distilled Espadin mezcal, the cultivated Agave angustifolia. Its signature is elote, corn: between the first and second distillation the maker adds roasted maize grown on his own land, which softens the spirit and rounds the sharper edges of the agave.

The dried corn is toasted on a wood-fired clay comal and placed in the still with the mezcal so its aroma infuses the vapour, then the batch is distilled a second time. The corn is never fermented and serves only as a flavour infusion, so this remains a 100% agave spirit. The result is a clear joven with a subtle Mexican corn aroma, smoky and stone-dry at first, then sweet with wood notes, honeycomb, green tropical fruit and smoke, finishing long on mint and papaya.