Del Maguey Single Village Espadin Especial Mezcal

Espadín Especial is Del Maguey's most direct expression of the workhorse agave — the village of San Luis del Río, the family that makes Vida, and espadín treated as the star rather than the base. Ron Cooper, the Taos artist who founded Del Maguey in 1995 on the single-village idea — each village bottled under its own name, the maker credited — has worked with Paciano Cruz Nolasco's family in San Luis del Río since the beginning; the village sits in a river canyon in the Tlacolula district where the espadín grows in rich, iron-red soil. Especial is 100% espadín, roasted in an earthen pit, crushed by tahona, naturally fermented in wood, and twice-distilled in wood-fired copper stills, bottled at 45% ABV; check your label for the lot. Where Vida is proofed down and built for cocktails, Especial is the same palenque's mezcal at full expression: expect a bright, fruity nose of roasted agave, tropical fruit, and a clean woodsmoke, opening into a rich, rounded palate of cooked-agave sweetness, citrus, green herb, and a mineral edge from the canyon soil, finishing long, dry, and warm with lingering smoke. Honest note: this is a sipper — for the Del Maguey drinker who's loved Vida in cocktails and wants to taste what San Luis del Río does neat. In a copita, slowly. The certified-organic hand-blown bottle with the Ken Price label.

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