Vecindad de Manuel Salcedo Raicilla Alto

Vecindad de Manuel Salcedo Raicilla Alto comes from Mascota in the Jalisco highlands, a sierra raicilla made from Agave inaequidens, known locally as Alto. This is a seldom seen agave, a large, very low yielding plant that grows wild and needs more than fifteen years to mature, with a five hundred kilo heart giving only around six litres of spirit, which is part of why the whole inaequidens family is rarely distilled. Manuel Salcedo also distils raicilla for La Venenosa.
The agave is steamed in a masonry oven, then milled by hand with machetes, fermented in steel vats and distilled in a stainless still fitted with a copper coil, and bottled at a forthright 49%. The profile stays close to the plant, vegetal and herbal on the nose, with a clear juniper note carrying through to a half sweet opening and a balanced, medium length finish.