Claridad Espadín Capón Mezcal

Capón is a farming decision, and Skurnik says this batch will make even the most jaded mezcal drinker rethink espadín. When an agave reaches maturity it sends up a quiote — a reproductive stalk that can rise twenty feet — and pours its sugars into it. The capón method cuts the quiote at that moment and leaves the plant in the field for months more, so the sugars flow back into the heart. Onofre Ortíz Ortíz, fifth-generation mezcalero of Bramaderos, Miahuatlán, Oaxaca and son of the legendary Don Beto, harvests all the agave for his most personal batches this way. This one used 85 piñas of eight-year espadín, harvested capón-style, rested, cooked three days in an oak-fired conical stone oven, rested three more, milled with axe, machete, and grinder, fermented five days in cypress tinas with ambient yeast and well water, and double-distilled in an alembic copper pot still, bottled at 48% ABV. Claridad — the brand Francisca D'Acosta and Ofer Levy built as a producer-first answer to mezcal's rabbit brands — labels every batch. Alkali Rye found a lush, almost sweet-cream texture with milk chocolate, clothbound cheddar, fresh bark, roasted carrot, baking spice, and toasted hazelnut — decadent but balanced, a standout espadín. Skurnik: rich, dense, mellow aromatics, a sweet, generous palate, easily among the most delicious espadín they've tasted. Neat, in a copita. What patience tastes like.

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