Quiquiriqui Madrecuishe

Quiquiriqui Madrecuishe is a single-agave mezcal made from wild and semi-wild Madrecuishe in Oaxaca.

Madrecuishe belongs to the Karwinskii family alongside Cuishe, Cirial and Tobasiche, and grows mostly in the drier parts of Oaxaca, taking a tall cylindrical shape and needing fourteen to sixteen years before it is ready. Its core is dense and low in water, and the long, thin piña gives the roast plenty of surface area to work on, which is where the earthy tone comes from. Natalio Vázquez makes this at his palenque in El Palmar, drawing on plantings in Sitio El Palmar, in San Luis Amatlán and in the Miahuatlán district. Semi-wild means wild seed sown into community or private land and then left alone to grow as it would on the hillside. Ten seeds are resown for every plant harvested.

Bright and intense, with brine, dusky earth and a little vanilla, then gentle smoke, zesty citrus, flowers and roasted agave fibre. It finishes silky, dried-herb-like, with a clean mineral edge. Sip it neat at room temperature in a copita; this one is too distinctive to mix away.