Del Maguey Single Village Wild Maguey Jabali Mezcal

Jabalí is the agave that fights the still. Agave convallis foams so violently during distillation that it can boil over and ruin a run, which is why most mezcaleros won't touch it, why a proper jabalí is scarce and prized, and why Master of Malt calls Del Maguey's fiery and feisty — notoriously tricky to distill but worth the effort. Ron Cooper, the Taos artist who founded Del Maguey in 1995 on the single-village idea, bottles it from Santa María Albarradas, where the palenque of Rogelio Martínez Cruz and Leopoldino Miranda sits among fruit trees and rose bushes and the manantial spring water flavors the fermentation: wild jabalí from the mountainsides, roasted in an earthen pit, crushed by tahona, fermented naturally, and twice-distilled in copper with the patience the plant demands, bottled at 47% ABV. Master of Malt's notes: apples, figs, anise, and an eccentric savory twist. Expect a nose of wet stone, green herbs, and something faintly fermented and funky, opening into a dense, oily palate of cooked agave, bitter greens, fig and apple, an anise-tinged spice, and a savory, almost umami depth, finishing very long, dry, and complex with a whisper of smoke. Honest note: this is a connoisseur's mezcal, unusual by design and priced for its difficulty — drinkers new to the category should start with Chichicapa. For anyone who's worked through espadín and tobalá and wants to taste why jabalí has a cult, Del Maguey's is one of the benchmarks. In a copita, neat, with time.

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