Sombra Mezcal Artesanal Joven Ensamble

Sombra planted 20,000 tobalá from seed to offset the 673 plants in this bottle — its first-ever super-premium blend, 2,000 bottles total. Sombra means shadow; master sommelier Richard Betts created the brand in 2006 as a stance against the vodka-ization of agave, and since 2017 it's made at a single company-owned palenque in San Juan del Río in the Oaxacan Sierra. Ensamble is 61% wild tepeztate — the cliff agave that takes twenty to twenty-five years to mature — and 39% wild tobalá, the small king of the canyons, both harvested high in the Sierra, roasted in a stone pit over oak, tahona-crushed, wild-fermented, and distilled in copper, bottled at 51.6% ABV; distiller John Sean Fagan will replant the nursery tobalá in the wild after two years. Mezcal Reviews' tasters found dry grass, juicy gala apple, a hint of provolone, and a marvelous sugary-sweet ember finish — great flavors, not at all hot for 51%, and on its own a four-and-a-half-star mezcal; the tepeztate leads with a soft tobalá finish, and one appreciated the higher proof. Honest note, and every reviewer raises it: it launched around $200, and there are now equally great tepeztate-tobalá ensambles for less — this is the collector's Sombra, limited and priced as one. Neat, in a copita, for a rare wild pairing. The shadow's ensamble.

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