Mal Bien Victor Emanuel Ramos Verde Mezcal

Since 2016 the Mal Bien team has been driving off the map into Mexico's mountains — past feral dogs, narcos, blockades, and machete-wielding protestors, by their own account — to find traditional producers whose mezcal they bottle under their name with the maestro's on the label. Verde is made by Víctor Emanuel Ramos of the Ramos family, third- and fourth-generation producers in the Miahuatlán district of Oaxaca, from maguey verde — Agave rhodacantha, a large, wild-harvested agave that takes a decade or more to mature — cooked in an underground pit oven, mashed by an ox-drawn tahona, fermented with open-air yeast, and double-distilled in a copper refrescadera still, bottled unaged at still strength; check your label for the batch and ABV. Mezcal Pro calls the brand the product of its founders' adventures and their palates. Verde is a less common agave with a profile between espadín's sweetness and the karwinskii family's minerality: expect a nose of green herbs, cooked agave, citrus, and wet stone over light smoke, opening into a bright, vegetal, layered palate with honey, pepper, and a savory depth, finishing long and clean. Honest note: a single-maestro, small-batch bottle from a boutique importer — batches vary, and that's the point. Neat, in a copita, slowly. Víctor Ramos's verde, from Miahuatlán.

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