Pal'alma Cupreata Guerrero Destilado de Agave 750ml

Pal'alma is the export label for Almamezcalera, the Mexico City project of Erick Rodriguez, who earned the nickname the "Indiana Jones of Mezcal" for tracking down small producers across more than twenty Mexican states. Rather than a single distillery, the brand is a curated network of local mezcaleros, and this bottling comes from Artemio García, working in the high-altitude terrain of Guerrero, in southwestern Mexico, at roughly 1,870 meters above sea level.

The spirit is distilled from Papalote, the regional name for Agave cupreata, a wide-leafed relative of Tobalá that thrives in Guerrero's elevated pine forests. The plants mature for eight to fifteen years, and once the reproductive stalk begins to grow, it is cut in the capón method and left for three more years to concentrate sugars in the heart. The roasted piñas are cooked in an earthen oven, milled entirely by hand, and fermented in wooden ayacahuite vats. Distillation runs through a hybrid still built from copper and a hollowed palo blanco tree trunk, and the finished spirit rests more than two years in glass before bottling.

The nose offers roasted yam, delicate citrus, and fresh red berries, while the palate turns rich and layered with salted caramel, tobacco, and clove. Papaya and a mineral wet sand note round out a long, expressive finish.