Mezcal Vago Espadin Emigdio Jarquin 2022

A later batch in the Mezcal Vago series of single-maestro bottlings, this Espadin was made by Emigdio Jarquin Ramirez in 2022 at his palenque in Miahuatlan, Oaxaca. The agave is Maguey Espadin, the cultivated Agave angustifolia that gives mezcal its dependable, citrus-edged base, and it is bottled joven so the agave and the roast stay in front. Each of Vago's mezcals carries the maker's name, and Jarquin's are a benchmark for the Miahuatlan style.

The piñas are pit roasted, crushed with a stone tahona and twice distilled in a copper refrescadera, the second cooling pot common to Ejutla and Miahuatlan. The house works in a traditional palenque without additives. At 50.6% it is thick and oily, warm and dry, with lemon peel and peppercorn leading, light vanilla sweetness and faint blueberry and strawberry slipping in, and a mineral, earthy finish.