Corte Vetusto Mezcal Tobalá

Corte Vetusto, "the ancient cut," is the mezcal of Juan Carlos González Díaz, a fourth-generation Zapotec maestro mezcalero whose family craft dates to his great-grandfather, Don Mauro. González Díaz practiced architecture before coming back to mezcal, learning from maestros across Oaxaca's villages as he traveled with his father. He produces in San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca, under NOM O363X. This bottling is 100% tobalá (Agave potatorum), a small wild agave that grows in rocky, high terrain and yields very little juice per plant, which is why tobalá mezcal is made in small quantities and prized by collectors. The piñas are cooked in a conical stone pit fired with mesquite, crushed with a stone tahona, and fermented with wild yeast. Distillation happens twice, first in a 250-liter copper pot still and then in a 70-liter clay pot still, the ancestral step that gives the spirit more weight and texture. It is bottled unaged. The Whisky Exchange describes it as all about fragrant smoke, floral notes and sweet honey, the delicate, perfumed side of mezcal that tobalá is known for. A special-occasion pour to sip neat, ideally next to the Espadín to see how much the agave changes the spirit.

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