Mal Bien Arroqueno Felipe + Ageo Cortes Mezcal

Arroqueño is the giant of the wild agaves — Agave americana var. oaxacensis, a massive maguey that takes fifteen to twenty-five years to mature and yields a mezcal of unusual depth — and this one is made by Felipe and Ageo Cortés, father and son. Since 2016 the Mal Bien team has been driving off the map into Mexico's mountains to find traditional producers whose mezcal they bottle under their name with the maestro's on the label; Mezcal Pro calls the brand the product of its founders' adventures and their palates. The Cortés family makes it in the traditional Oaxacan way: wild arroqueño roasted in an underground pit oven, mashed by tahona, fermented with open-air yeast in wooden vats, and double-distilled in copper, bottled unaged at still strength; check your label for the village, batch, and ABV. Arroqueño is prized for its complexity and its vegetal, savory weight: expect a nose of green melon, cooked agave, cinnamon, dried herbs, and a faint green-bean note over light smoke, opening into a dense, layered, gently sweet palate with roasted pepper, minerals, and a long, earthy finish. Honest note: two decades of growth in a wild agave, from a single family, in small batches — a collector's bottle priced for it, and batches vary by design. Neat, in a copita, slowly. The Cortés arroqueño.

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