Real Minero is the name of the brand of mezcal made by the Ángeles family, who have been distilling mezcal in the town of Santa Catarina Minas in Oaxaca for more than a century now.  You can find out more about them in this report on Mezcal Reviews on a distillery tour in 2017. (Mezcal Reviews, by the way, is an essential resource for people like me who are new to mezcal.) Their mezcal is no longer officially called mezcal—the word no longer appears on their labels. This has to do with the bureaucratic headaches of the certification process: it is in fact mezcal in all but name only. The mezcal produced by the family has a very high reputation (and commands prices to match). I was lucky enough to find two bottles from a local liquor store at a significant discount last year. I’m not sure what led to that discount but I wasted no time in snapping them up. I will be reviewing both this month. First up, is a batch of the Barril, a maguey that is new to me. As per the label, the average age of the maguey used was 15 years old and it was all harvested in 2018. The mezcal itself was distilled in the second half of that year and then rested in glass for six months. I opened the bottle last week and have been enjoying it very much. Here now are my notes. Continue reading →