Rey Campero "Jabali" Mezcal 750ml

Rey Campero is the mezcal project of the Sánchez Parada family, led by maestro mezcalero Rómulo Sánchez Parada in Candelaria Yegolé, a small village in the Zoquitlán municipality within Oaxaca's Sierra Sur. The family's roots in mezcal trace back to Rómulo's great-grandmother Clara Manzano Ríos, who built the district's first palenque along the Río Quiechapa in 1870. Rey Campero, meaning "King of the Countryside," honors that legacy of over 150 years of production, and the family became known throughout Oaxaca for pioneering a new distillation technique for Jabalí, an agave once considered too volatile to produce commercially since it foams violently and can rupture a still.

Jabalí, botanically Agave convallis, grows wild on craggy rock faces and cliffsides, making it as difficult to harvest as it is to distill. The agave hearts are cooked underground for four to five days, then rested for up to a week before being crushed on a traditional stone tahona. The crushed fiber ferments naturally in open-air wooden vats for up to twelve days, depending on the season, and the resulting must is double distilled in small copper pot stills.

The nose is flamboyant and slightly sweaty, opening into orange zest and slate on the palate. Chalk, tropical fruit, and rawhide push through a dynamic, smoky finish, with a persistent thread of pepper and earthiness underneath.