Claridad Ensamble de Siete Mezcal

Seven agaves, one still. Ensamble de Siete is Onofre Ortíz Ortíz's most ambitious mezcal — the fifth-generation mezcalero of Bramaderos, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, son of the legendary Don Beto, cooking and distilling together seven species from his hillsides: tepeztate (Agave marmorata), the twenty-five-year wild one; jabalí (A. convallis), the one that foams in the still; espadín (A. angustifolia); tobalá (A. potatorum), the prized highland one; bicuishe and madrecuishe (A. karwinskii), the tall thin cousins; and mexicano (A. rhodacantha). All are cooked three days in a stone pit oven, milled with a small mechanical shredder, fermented in cypress tanks with well water and open-air yeast, and double-distilled in an alembic copper pot still; check your batch label for ABV and yield. Claridad — the producer-first brand Francisca D'Acosta and Ofer Levy built as an answer to mezcal's rabbit brands — labels every batch. An ensamble this wide is a portrait of a palenque: expect tepeztate's green, savory funk and jabalí's mineral edge against tobalá's florals and fruit, the karwinskii pair's herbal brightness, espadín's body, and mexicano's warm, viscous finish, all integrated into something that changes with every sip. Honest note: this is a connoisseur's bottle — a sipper for drinkers who've tasted the single agaves and want to hear them play together. Neat, in a copita, with the label in front of you. Seven voices, one family.

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