Sotoleros Sotol Ensamble Bienvenido Fernández

This Sotoleros bottling from Bienvenido Fernandez is an ensemble of eighty percent Dasylirion sotol and twenty percent agave, which keeps it firmly a sotol rather than a pure agave distillate. Fernandez is a sotol and lechuguilla producer from northwestern Chihuahua near Madera, on the edge of the desert, where he learned the work from his grandfather. The area is a heartland for the Dasylirion plant and for the wild Agave shrevei that often joins it.
Fernandez harvests both plants from the same ground, then cooks them together in earth pits over oak fires in a manner close to mezcal, fermenting and double distilling in copper. The shared terroir and pit roast give a complex, herbal spirit with fresh green character, the high sotol share showing as cut grass, pine needle, chamomile and clay minerality, with overripe tropical fruit and floral honey rounding it out. Bottled at 48 percent.