El Jolgorio Mezcal Especial Tobaziche

El Jolgorio Tobaziche is a single wild agave mezcal from Casa Cortes, the sixth generation Oaxacan family behind the rare El Jolgorio line. Tobaziche is a form of Agave karwinskii, the same complex that gives Madrecuixe, Barril and Cirial, and in some regions the names Tobaziche and Largo point to the same plant. It needs around fourteen years to ripen, and mezcal made from it is genuinely scarce. This bottling carries the name of maestro mezcalero Pedro Vasquez.
It is made in the artesanal tradition: the piñas are pit roasted, fermented and twice distilled to a joven that shows the species rather than any wood. Karwinskii agave reads green, herbal and dry, and here that translates into deep notes of pine, green banana and lime zest, with a streak of tar folded into clear roasting smoke. The Especial series, marked by its black bottle, gathers the most limited single agave releases and is filled to 700 ml. Bottled at 48%.