El Jolgorio Mezcal Tobala

El Jolgorio Mezcal Tobala is a joven made from wild Tobala, the species Potatorum, a small agave that grows at high altitude and gives only modest volumes of intensely aromatic mezcal. Made by Gregorio Martinez and Valentin Cortes for the Casa Cortes collective in Oaxaca, it reflects a plant that takes twelve to fifteen years to mature and, unusually, produces no hijuelos, so it can only grow from seed, which makes it ever scarcer.
Tobala reads floral, fruity and mineral, and here the nose is fresh and aromatic with rich, heavy fruit. The palate recalls mango and roasted agave and is pleasingly thick and viscous. Pit roasted in the artesanal style and bottled unaged at 47 percent, it shows the delicate wild agave at full strength, with no barrel to mask its perfume.