Koch El Mezcal Artesanal Joven Maguey Tobasiche de Rio de Ejutla

Tobasiche is the karwinskii agave that Mezcal PhD's tasting group found metallic yet sweet and floral in Koch's lineup — and acclaimed above nearly everything else on the table. Koch El Mezcal works with maestros across Oaxaca's mezcal regions, bottling each village and agave separately; this is the Artesanal line — earthen-pit roasting, tahona crushing, wild fermentation in wood, and double distillation in copper — from Río de Ejutla, the river valley south of Oaxaca City where the wild karwinskii agaves grow tall and thin on dry hillsides. Tobasiche is a close cousin of cuixe and madrecuixe, a trunk-forming maguey that takes twelve to fifteen years to mature and yields little; pit-roasted, tahona-crushed, wild-fermented, and copper-distilled, bottled unaged; check your label for the maestro, lot, and ABV. Karwinskii agaves give a profile unlike espadín — drier, more mineral, more herbal, with a distinctive savory funk: expect a nose of wet clay, dried herbs, green olive, citrus peel, and a metallic-mineral edge over light smoke, opening into a lean, dry, layered palate with white pepper, cucumber, honeyed fruit, and a saline finish that runs long. Honest note: a connoisseur's wild agave, scarce and priced for it. Neat, in a copita, beside an espadín to taste what the agave changes. Tobasiche, from the river of Ejutla.

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