Mezcal Vago Espadin "Emigdio Jarquin" Mezcal 750ml

Mezcal Vago began as a love story: co-founder Judah Kuper met a nurse while recovering in an Oaxaca hospital, and her father, subsistence farmer and mezcalero Aquilino García, drew him into the world of mezcal. Judah, Aquilino, and longtime friend Dylan Sloan launched Vago around a small network of independent mezcaleros, each bottling released under the producer's own name. This Espadín comes from Don Emigdio Jarquín Ramírez, a fourth-generation mezcalero working in El Nanche, in the Miahuatlán de Porfirio Díaz district, whose meticulous technique has earned him a reputation as one of the region's finest distillers.

Emigdio roasts his Espadín in a conical earthen oven holding up to twelve tons of agave, running an unusually long cook of five to seven days before letting the piñas cool in open air for up to two weeks. The cooked agave is crushed on a massive, ox-pulled stone tahona weighing roughly 4,000 pounds, then fermented in wood vats for about five days before a double distillation in a copper refrescadera still, a style common to the Miahuatlán region.

The nose brings smoked agave, fresh herbs, sweet citrus, and earthy minerality. On the palate, roasted agave and black pepper meet grilled pineapple and cacao nibs, finishing long, warm, and slightly sweet with lingering smoke and spice.