Derrumbes Mezcal San Luis Potosí Salmiana

Derrumbes runs a regional series with one Mexican state per bottle, and this San Luis Potosí expression comes from Charcas on the high central plateau, distilled by Juan Manuel Pérez from the wild Salmiana agave that grows on the area's calcareous soils. Salmiana is a large but low yielding maguey, so a mezcalero needs far more of it than blue agave for the same volume, which makes this a genuinely distinctive highland style.

The agave is cooked in above ground masonry ovens rather than an underground pit, which keeps the smoke gentle to almost absent. It is then crushed under a tahona, fermented in masonry vats with wild yeast, twice distilled in small copper pot stills and rested briefly in glass. The result is soft and balanced, leaning sweet, with white pepper, green olive, vanilla and floral notes over a clear mineral, chalky edge drawn from the limestone ground.