Quiquiriqui Tepeztate

Quiquiriqui Tepeztate is a seasonal mezcal made from wild Tepeztate agave harvested in Oaxaca.

Tepeztate is the one everybody wants and few can get. Part of the Marmorata family, it grows wild across Oaxaca with wide, twisted leaves and no discernible order to its shape, and somehow does best clinging to steep rocky cliffs, which makes finding and cutting it genuinely difficult. In the wild it can take thirty years to mature. Orlando Altamirano made this one in Zoquitlán by fully traditional means: mature agave pit-roasted, crushed with a tahona, fermented wild in wooden vats and double-distilled in alembic stills. Availability is seasonal, and small.

The most reserved and most aromatically complex of the range, with floral intensity, sweet metallic notes and lingering fruit. The palate is bolder, with cured meat characters and buttery sweetness ahead of a ferrous zing and delicate wood smoke, the texture slippery and the finish full of mineral. Sip neat, room temperature, nothing added.