Quiquiriqui Destilado con Mole

Quiquiriqui Destilado con Mole is a vegetarian pechuga-style mezcal redistilled with a traditional Oaxacan mole paste.

Pechuga mezcal is normally made by redistilling a finished spirit with fruits, grains, nuts and a piece of raw protein, usually a chicken breast, suspended above the still to cook in the rising vapours. It is a bottling for feast days, made in countless local versions and rarely seen far from home. This one swaps the poultry for a homemade mole, built to the Méndez family recipe: ancho and guajillo chillies, sesame, almonds and peanuts, garlic, onion, raisins, banana and cacao. Carlos Méndez makes it at his palenque in Santiago Matatlán using the house Espadin agave as the base; the paste goes in after the second distillation, infuses for a fortnight, then the spirit is distilled a third time.

Roasted agave sweetness, Matatlán herbs, earth, leather and white chocolate with smoke drifting through. The palate runs to complex spice, roasted nuts and a long, nutty finish of cacao and pepper. Sip it neat at room temperature from a copita; it also builds a serious Oaxacan old fashioned.