Marca Negra Tobalá Mezcal

Marca Negra is a high proof single village house whose bottlings are made by different maestros across Oaxaca, each agave giving its own character. This expression is a joven mezcal from Tobalá, the small wild Agave potatorum that grows at altitude, fruits only from seed and takes roughly twelve to fifteen years to reach maturity, so each pit yields very little spirit.

Like most artesanal mezcal it is pit roasted over wood, which caramelises the agave and lays in a soft ember smoke, then twice distilled and bottled unaged at 47.2% to keep the species front and centre. Tobalá leans floral and delicate with bright exotic fruit, fresh grass and a mineral edge, and the notes of lemon, clove and cinnamon noted on this batch fill out a long, gently smoky finish.