The first two reviews of this week of mezcal were both of releases from Mal Bien (the Alto and the Verde). Mal Bien is an American company that works with small producers in Mexico. Today’s review is also of a mezcal from a company that works with small producers in Mexico but this time it’s a Mexican company: Rey Campero. They are based in a small village in Oaxaca and are a family-owned company led by a mezcalero, Romulo Sanchez Parada. So if you like the idea of the bulk of the profit from the sale of mezcal going to producers based in Mexico—and I have to admit I do— Rey Campero is the brand for you. They make mezcal from a range of maguey varieties and in a number of styles. I’ll review a few more of their releases next month but first up, I have for you a review of a Tobala (the name of the variety of maguey it is distilled from). This variety is apparently grown at high altitudes, which gives it a distinct character. As I’ve said before, I’m not knowledgeable enough about mezcal to confidently tease apart the characteristics of different varietals of maguey but I am willing to slowly learn. I do know I really liked the Del Maguey Tobala I’ve previously reviewed. Let’s see what I make of this one. Continue reading
Category Archives: -Other Drinks
Mal Bien Verde
This week of reviews of mezcal began with a Mal Bien release made from maguey alto, a type of agave. That was a mezcal from a small producer in Michoacán. Today’s review is also of a Mal Bien. This time the mezcal is from Oaxaca and made from maguey verde by Victor Ramos. Unlike in the current world of Scottish whisky, where not very many different varieties of barley are used, there is a lot of variation in the types of agave used in making mezcal. As I said on Monday, I know next to nothing about any of this—I couldn’t tell you what the expected characteristics of different kinds of agave are or whether this one made from maguey verde is a good example of the type or an outlier due to other variables of the production process. If you are an aficionado, feel free to enlighten me. I can tell you that I very much liked the Mal Bien Alto and am hoping this Verde will be at least as good. Let’s see if that’s true. I am not sure, by the way, if there have been multiple releases of this but my sample is from Batch 032DER. Continue reading
Mal Bien Alto
After a week of reviews of brandies and then a week of reviews of single grain whiskies, let’s shift all the way over to the Americas, to Mexico, and do a week of mezcals. I’ve reviewed a few mezcals in recent years and every time I do I become more enamoured of the general profile. My exposure to the category is not very wide or deep, however, and I am the furthest thing from an expert on it. I can’t tell you very much about the producers or the companies that release mezcals in the US, or about the characteristics of particular types of agave grown in particular regions, or about the effects of particular distillation regimes. For that kind of information you should look elsewhere—perhaps on the Mezcal Reviews website. What I can tell you is what I make of the mezcals I drink; it should go without saying that my responses are those of someone who usually drinks single malt whisky in the Scottish style. Alright, disavowals out of the way, I can tell you that the first two mezcals I am reviewing this week are from Mal Bien who bottle mezcals from small producers around Mexico. This alto was made by Isidro Rodriguez Montoya from the town of Río de Parras in Michoacán. Okay, let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading
Somerset 20, Cider Brandy
My week of brandy reviews began with a very old Armagnac (this 50 yo from Darroze). It continued with a 15 yo Calvados bottled for Astor Wines in New York City (this Domaine Montreuil). It concludes today with a review of another apple brandy. But this one is not a Calvados but a so-called cider brandy from the Somerset Cider Brandy Company, located in, yes, Somerset, England. They’ve apparently been in the brandy production business since 1989. I don’t believe their product is available in the US. At any rate, I’d not heard of them till Sku sent me a sample several years ago (alongside the Montreuil 15). Let’s see what I’ve been missing.
Somerset 20, Cider Brandy (42%; from a sample from a friend)
Nose: Rich notes of apple and caramel mixed in with lemon and orange peel; quite reminiscent in some ways of a heavily sherried Speyside whisky (apart from the apple, of course). As it sits the apples get baked and get a sprinkle of brown sugar over the top; the oak becomes more apparent as well. Continue reading
Domaine Montreuil 15 (for Astor Wines)
I said in Sunday’s look ahead to the month on the blog that Twin Cities restaurant reports would be posted on Tuesdays as per usual, with booze reviews on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as per usual—and here I am, just two days later, already a liar. I’m afraid I didn’t have the time on Sunday or Monday to resize the photographs from this weekend’s eating out, and so here is the second brandy review of the week. The series began yesterday with a very old Armagnac. It continues today with a considerably less old, though far from very young Calvados. I noted yesterday that it had been a long time since my last Armagnac review. The same is even more true of my last Calvados review: the last one was posted more than 7 years ago. That was a review of an excellent Michel Huard and in the comments on that review you can read a spirited argument with my old nemesis, Sku. As it happens, Sku was the source of the sample of the Calvados I am reviewing today, which was an exclusive for Astor Wines in New York. I can’t remember when he gave it to me, but I can tell you I am disappointed by how conventional the sample label he made for it is. I guess he sold out. Continue reading
Darroze 50
I’ll be starting the month with a week of reviews of brandies. First up, an armagnac. It’s been more than three years since my last armagnac review. Frankly, I have not been drinking very much armagnac in the last few years. I’m not sure why—I do have some nice bottles on my shelves. To make up for this neglect, I have for you today a review of the oldest armagnac on said shelves: a 50 yo Darroze blend (Les Grand Assemblages is their term). I’ve actually had this bottle open (and preserved with inert gas) for quite a few years now. Indeed, I had been under the impression that I had reviewed it right after I’d bought and opened it. A good thing I checked as the bottle is now well into the last quarter and I am unlikely to ever purchase a 50 yo armagnac again. Now, for those of you who don’t follow booze pricing, I should say that back when I bought this, it cost less than most official release 25 yo single malt whiskies, and I’m sure it still does by quite a margin. Indeed, this year’s Diageo Special Release slate includes an NAS Mortlach for only a little bit less than I paid for this 50 yo several years ago. I’ve enjoyed it a lot as I’ve dipped into it over the years and I’m glad I finally remembered to take some notes before it’s all gone. Continue reading
Quiquiriqui, Cacao Pechuga
Housekeeping note: I did not post the usual Thursday recipe yesterday. For a change, I didn’t have the post ready to go a week prior, and the days leading up to Thanksgiving got a bit too full for me to get around to it. I’ll post that recipe on Saturday instead. Here, on schedule, however, is this week’s third booze post: the final post in my mini-run of mezcal reviews.
The first two were both Del Maguey releases: the Tobala on Monday and the Wild Tepextate on Wednesday. I liked both but the Tobala more than the other. Today’s offering is not not from Del Maguey but from an outfit named Quiquiriqui. This is a brand based in the UK that apparently works directly with producers in Oaxaca—though looking at their website, it’s hard to tell if they work with separate producers or just one family. Their range includes a number of pechugas: one made with mole (a la the Cinco Sentidos I reviewed earlier this year), one made with coffee, and this one which deploys cacao. I’m not sure how exactly this is done: are cacao beans hung over the still during the third distillation a la the traditional chicken or turkey? Are the cacao beans in addition to chicken/turkey or a replacement? If you know one way or the other, please write in below. Anyway, let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading
Del Maguey, Wild Tepextate
I began this week of mezcal reviews with Del Maguey’s Tobala, which I rather liked. Here now is another of their releases: Wild Tepextate. As per the Mezcal Reviews site the producer is the same as that of the Tobala, which means it’s also from Santa Maria Albarradas. Tepextate is also a variety of agave found at high altitudes—you’ll never guess but it grows wild. That pretty much exhausts my knowledge about this mezcal. Well, I can tell you it also costs in the neighbourhood of $100 in most parts of the US and that it is currently available in Minnesota for a bit more than that. Okay, let’s get to it.
Del Maguey, Wild Tepextate (45%; Lot: TEP 181; from a bottle split)
Nose: More acidic than the Tobala, with more of a mineral note as well. Otherwise, similar notes of lime, green chiles and salt with mild passionfruit. Some charred pineapple in there too. More savoury as it sits with a bit of ham brine joining the party. With a couple of drops of water the “green” notes recede and the savoury notes expand. Continue reading
Del Maguey, Tobala
This month I’ve already done a week of reviews of a category I don’t know very much about: bourbon. I’m now pleased to do a week of reviews of a category I know even less about: mezcal. I’ll be reviewing two mezcals from Del Maguey, the brand that has in recent years raised the profile of mezcal among whisky drinkers, and another from Quiquiriqui, a brand I had not heard of until I acquired a sample of it. First up, Del Maguey’s Tobala. It is named for the variety of agave from which it is is distilled. The tobala agave is much smaller variety than most others used to make mezcal, grows at high elevations, takes a long time to reach maturity, and apparently its yields too are quite low. All of this means mezcals made from tobala are typically more expensive. This Del Maguey iteration—which is a single village/town expression from Santa Maria Albarradas—goes for over $100, if you can find it. I’ve never had a tobala mezcal before, and so will not be able to tell you if this is a representative example of the varietal, but I’m curious to try it. Continue reading
Hampden Great House, 2021 Release
Jamaican rum week began on Monday with a 15 yo Long Pond and continued on Wednesday with a 16 yo Worthy Park. Here now to close out the week is a Hampden, albeit one that does not bear an age statement. This is Hampden’s third annual release in their “Great House” series. I’ve previously reviewed the 2020 release, which I liked a lot. At the time of that review I’d made a mental note to try to find the 2021 release when it came out, but it’s not a mental note I remembered to read often. Then again, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Very few interesting rums come to Minnesota and with inter-state shipping of spirits now as difficult as international shipping I probably wouldn’t have been able to buy a bottle even if I’d looked for one. (This is where someone will tell me it was available at my local Total Wine.) Anyway, I did get to it via a bottle split and that’s better than nothing. If I like it will I actually remember to look for the 2022 release? I don’t think it’s out yet. Continue reading
Worthy Park 16, 2005, Rum (Thompson Bros.)
Jamaican rum week continues. On Monday I reviewed a 15 yo Long Pond that I liked a lot and which I said reminded me of rum from Worthy Park. And today I have a 16 yo Worthy Park. Well, I don’t think it was bottled with that name on the label but that is the distillery in question. This was a single cask bottled by the Thompson brothers of Dornoch Castle fame for K&L in California. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a Worthy Park I didn’t like—I don’t mean to give the impression that I’ve tried so very many of them. Let’s hope this won’t be the first.
Worthy Park 16, 2005, Rum (54%; Thompson Bros.; from a sample split)
Nose: Oh yes, quite a bit more funk in this one with motor oil, diesel and just a whiff of ripe garbage heap. Quite a bit of aniseed on the second sniff. As it sits there’s more fruit—dried tangerine peel—along with cinnamon and clove and quite a bit of caramel. With a lot of time and air the caramel lightens a bit and picks up some toffee and some plum sauce. A few drops of water and it seems to get sort of…flat: the funk and the fruit recede and are replaced by brown sugar. Continue reading
Long Pond 15, 2005 (ImpEx Collection)
Now, Long Pong is not generally a misnomer for a Jamaican rum but that’s a typo on the sample label. The name of the distillery is Long Pond. It was once one of hundreds of Jamaican rum distilleries, its history—like those of all distilleries in the Caribbean—going back uneasily a few hundred years through the horrors of sugar plantation slavery and the triangular trade. If there’s a history of Caribbean rum that looks closely at its fundamental connections with the history of colonialism and slavery and their post/neo-colonial reverberations, I haven’t come across it. My sense is that the rum world is as quiet about this complicated history as the American bourbon industry is, but I may be wrong about that: if a book about this exists, I would be very interested to read it (please write in below). Anyway, almost all of those Jamaican distilleries are now gone. Long Pond itself—one of the last survivors—was closed in 2012 before being reopened in 2017. I gather it may now be producing again. The rum I am reviewing today, however, was distilled before that closure, in 2005. This cask was bottled in 2021 by the California-based importer ImpEx. It’s my first Long Pond and I am curious to see where it will fall on the funk spectrum between Hampden and Worthy Park, the two Jamaican distilleries I do have some experience of. Let’s get to it. Continue reading
Cinco Sentidos, Pechuga de Mole Poblano
This has been a week not just of mezcal reviews but of reviews of unusual mezcals. Wednesday’s Weller cask-finished Chichicapa from Del Maguey followed on the heels of Monday’s Del Maguey release that saw the pechuga process tweaked with the use of Iberico ham. I liked that one a lot more than the bourbon finish. That might be good news for this one which is in the general style of the Iberico but ups the pechuga madness by featuring not ham or chicken or turkey breast in the final distillation but full on mole poblano. This is not a Del Maguey release but from an outfit named Cinco Sentidos. Their website indicates that they release mezcals made by small-scale producers. I have no idea if this mole poblano release is representative or a wild variation on their usual line-up. Well, I love a good mole poblano but I can’t say I’ve ever wished I could drink a mole poblano-flavoured spirit. But perhaps the mole won’t come through here as strongly as the Iberico did in the Del Maguey. Only one way to find out. But however it goes, for my next round of mezcal reviews—whenever those might end up being posted; I have no further mezcal samples on hand—I think I am going to go for more regulation releases. Recommendations for any such will be very welcome in the comments below. Continue reading
Del Maguey Chichicapa, Weller Cask Finish
Mezcal week rolls on with another Del Maguey release. Monday’s was an unusual take on pechuga maturation from Santa Catarina Minas and involved an Iberico ham. This one, which does not, as far as I know, involve any meat products in the distillation is from Chichicapa, the source of the first mezcal I reviewed and a very popular Del Maguey marque. Unlike the regular Chichicapa, however, this one is aged for a bit. As you might be able to tell from the tiny picture alongside, its colour is a pale urine yellow compared to the very well-hydrated clear of the other two mezcal samples behind it. This faint colour is due to a finish/brief maturation in bourbon casks. And not just any casks but casks that had previously held spirit that went into Old Rip Van Winkle 10. A cynical read of this situation is that it seems to have been designed precisely to separate bourbon drinkers with more money than sense—which these days appears to be a good description of almost all bourbon drinkers—from a good chunk of that money. Well, I don’t know how much this cost on release but it now goes for well above $200. But is it any good? Does anybody really want their mezcal to taste like bourbon? Let’s see. Continue reading
Del Maguey Iberico, Mezcal
Who better than someone who knows almost nothing about mezcals to do a week of reviews of mezcals? No one, that’s who. I’ve only reviewed one mezcal previously and have not tasted so very many more than that. The one I previously reviewed was bottled by Del Maguey, the brand that has probably more than any other raised the profile of mezcal in the US in the last decade, especially among whisky drinkers. They bottle single village mezcals made in traditional ways and have a sterling reputation. Well, this one—made in the village of Santa Catarina Minas—is both traditional and not. Traditional in that it is generally in the pechuga style, which sees a final round of distillation with a chicken or turkey breast hanging over the clay still (plus various fruits etc.). Not traditional in that in this case the chicken/turkey breast was replaced by an Iberico ham. This was apparently suggested to the proprietors by a chef who also sent them the ham to use. Perhaps the fact that it was Iberico ham accounts for the nosebleed price of this mezcal. I’m not sure if it was a one-off or if it’s continued to be made in limited quantities but if you want to buy a bottle now you’ll have to be prepared to shell out $200 or more. I’m not going to be prepared to do this, no matter what, but I am curious to see what it’s like. Continue reading
Grander Rum 11, Islay Peat Finish
Okay, for the first full week of reviews in March let’s do a week of things that are not single malt whisky. I’ll start with a rum that has an unlikely whisky connection. As we all know, it’s not very unusual anymore to see whiskies that have been “finished” or double matured in rum casks. What I have for you today, however, is something that goes in the opposite direction: it’s rum that was finished in an Islay cask. The rum in question is from Panama, though I believe Grander is the brand name of an independent bottler rather than a distiller. This rum was matured for 10 years in an ex-bourbon cask—which is fairly par for the course for rum—but then finished for an additional year in an Islay cask (the rumour is that the cask in question was from Ardbeg). As to where the finishing happened—at the distillery in Panama or elsewhere, I’m not sure. It’s a bit embarrassing that I don’t know, considering I’m a member of the private group for which this was bottled. I will make it my life’s work to find this out sometime in the next 10 days to 10 years. In the meantime, here are my notes on this chimerical creature. (The bottle was opened a while ago; these notes are from my fourth or fifth pour.) Continue reading
Golden Devil Dark Overproof Rum
This week’s theme: things that aren’t single malt whiskies. First up, a rum.
I haven’t reviewed very many rums on the blog; rarely going over 1 review per year. And all the rums I have reviewed have been from single distilleries. This one’s the exception. It is a blend of Jamaican pot still and Guyanese column still rums. The age and identities of the constituent rums are unknown to me. This was bottled for K&L in California a few years ago and went for the low, low price of $20. I have a horrible feeling that I am going to deeply regret having waited more than three years since receiving this sample from Sku to review it.
Golden Devil Dark Overproof Rum (57%; from a sample from a friend)
Nose: Molasses and (over-ripe) plantains and a slight rubbery note off the top and then the funk begins to come through bringing some diesel with it. Burnt caramel as it sits and a slight mossy note emerges as well. The funk recedes as it sits and it’s the plantains and caramel that dominate. A few drops of water push the funk back further and pull out some vanilla and aniseed. Continue reading