I guess this is a month of mezcal reviews. I kicked off the month with an excellent ensamble by Tio Rey in Oaxaca for Vago. Last week, I reviewed a cenizo made for Legendario Domingo by the Colon family in Michoacán. This week I’m back in Oaxaca. This mezcal was distilled from cuishe/cuixe, a variant of wild agave karwinskii (from which come a number of magueys used to distill mezcal). The mezcalero is Eleuterio “Tio Tello” Perez Ramos and the bottler is Cinco Sentidos, the brand from El Destilado restaurant in Oaxaca. As per the label, the production process was pretty artisanal: the maguey was roasted in conical ovens with mesquite and oak for five days, chopped by hand with machetes, and then mashed with hammers also made of mesquite. Fermentation took place in tanks made of cypress before distillation in a copper alembic still. Interestingly, the label also says that this was distilled in 2008 but only bottled in 2024. Since it’s still a joven I guess that means it spent 16 years in glass containers. I don’t know enough about mezcal to be able to say for sure but I think that’s a pretty long time compared to most. Technically, I suppose the spirit shouldn’t change in the glass but anybody who has opened bottles of whisky that were filled decades prior knows that “bottle maturation” is a thing. Anyway, having enjoyed Cinco Sentidos’ offerings before (well, their mole pechuga, a little less), I’m looking forward to this one. Let’s see what it’s like.

Cinco Sentidos, Cuishe, Tio Tello (47.3%; Batch TELCU 08b; from my own bottle)

Nose: Starts out with what I think of as the classic mezcal nose of cut chillies in vinegar, lime, bell pepper and salt with whiffs of passionfruit; mineral smoke in the background. The fruit gets sweeter here too as it sits and some earthy notes pop out (wet clay). A couple of drops of water bring out more of the clay and some vegetal notes (bell pepper)

Palate: Comes in exactly as advertised by the nose but it’s a bit sweeter here. Perfect drinking strength; good texture. More fruit on subsequent sips (orange). Earthier here too with time and there’s a bit of cinnamon too. Sweeter with water.

Finish: Long. The smoke and salt linger the longest as everything fades slowly; with time there’s some bitterness at the end. Develops as on the palate.

Comments: Well, this is very nice indeed. There’s a mellowness in the texture and a melded quality in the flavours that I am tempted to say may be down to the 16 years between distillation and bottling, but—as I keep saying—I know very little about mezcal and there may be other variables in play. I do know I like this a lot.

Rating: 87 points.