
"When you're intoxicated on Mezcal they don't say you're drunk. They say you're closer to God." - Old Mexican saying
"When you're intoxicated on Mezcal they don't say you're drunk. They say you're closer to God." - Old Mexican saying
Tasting Notes
Tasting Notes

Wahaka VdM Borrego
Wahaka VdM Borrego
Master Mezcalero
Moises Calzada
State
Guerrero
Agave
Cupreata con pechuga de borrego y hiervas
Have you ever eaten white cake while walking on a beach near a restaurant grilling BBQ meats and fish? And while you’re walking someone nearby is smoking a cigar, a sweet cigar from some country along the Mediterranean Sea? Aromas of sea salts and sugary ash in the air?
That’s what I experience while tasting the Wahaka VdM brand of Borrego and it’s delicious. You may not think those flavors mingle well but they do in this batch.
This is a small batch of only 90 bottles which Wahaka put out in 2015. I had six of the bottles and I’m down to one half of one now. This bottle will never be duplicated. That seems impressive, but most mezcal bottles, because of the process and factors going into making good mezcal, will never be able to be reproduced. That’s why mezcal is such a special spirit. Each Mezcal bottle is like a life, never to be repeated, never to be truly cloned, never to have or recreate the same experience. Especially when you’re dealing with wild agaves and pechugas.
If you don’t know what a pechuga is, the short description would be; a mezcal distilled with a meat product, grains, fruits and spices. There are several different meats used to make Pechugas. Pechuga means “Breast,” specifically, chicken breast, but it can also be made with turkey or duck breast and Pechugas are traditionally distilled with all sorts of animal products.
The Wahaka VdM I’m speaking of today is a Borrego (lamb). The lamb shank is hung in a bag filled with herbs, spices fruits and grains between the first and second distillations. If you know anything about Pechugas and the process you know the animal product has a huge effect on the flavor of the spirit. It’s just one more of the many variables which can drastically affect the flavor and experience of the mezcal. Alongside the wild yeasts, the wood used for roasting, the water used in fermentation and the particular agave base, the meat and which animal it came from provide a whole new unique expression to the bottle.
Wahaka’s VdM expression is truly unique among pechugas. While the meat tends to blend the flavors and tone down the herbs, it also creates a balancing effect of the flavors. The traditional campfire smoke which most mezcal have in spades is blended well with a leathery earth and cooked agave sweetness.
Wahaka is famous for producing some incredible vintages and this is no exception. If you get the rare opportunity to try it, take it and savor it.
Remember, as in life and mezcal, drink deeply.
Salud!
-river

Mezcalito Pal'alma
Edición Especial
Mezcalito Pal'alma
Edición Especial
Mezcalero
Asuncion Matilde Vargas
State
Puebla, Mexico
Maguey
Augustifolia Haw
Distilation
Double Distilled with 3 Kilos of Cannabis Indica
For my first review, I'm very excited to introduce one of my absolute favorite mezcals, a special edition from Mezcalito Pal'alma. I found this artisanal mezcal at a tasting convention in DC called Mezcal: Mexico in a Bottle. It was a lively evening of tasting and networking that unfortunately I can barely remember and I'm too ashamed to rewatch the videos.
Despite my intoxication, I was lucky enough to pick up the last bottle of this special edition from Erick Rodriguez himself, owner and operator of Mezcalito Pal'alma. This is a very rare mezcal, distilled to a 65% Alcohol volume. In addition to this uncommonly high alcohol percentage, the musto was also infused with marijuana (Cannabis Indica), so it's intoxicating in multiple ways. The combination of Alcohol and THC is characterized by strong, pungent, vegetal flavors. It's a beautiful dusty emerald color with aromas of fresh marijuana and scorched grasses.
Now, I tend to avoid describing the flavors of spirits because I don't really believe any two people actually experience the same flavors very often. We all have different palates, and our tastebuds create different thoughts based on our different experiences in life. So I like to describe the flavors of mezcal based on the images they conjure.
The aficionados describe mezcal like they might describe wine with various fruits, herbs and spices. That's how I know I'm not really an aficionado because I almost never get those kinds of flavors. I get flavors like leather and gasoline, tire fires and rust, desert grasses and charred wood.
This may suggest that I don't really like mezcal, but it's precicely these more aggressive flavor themes which attract me to it. I like mezcal because it can be harsh and strange. Its flavors feel unrefined and extreme.
You see, I can't appreciate one-dimensional liquids. I'm not interested in the smoothest, sweetest or easiest to drink liqueurs. I don't want it to go down easy like some flavorless quadruple distilled vodka from Sweden. If that's what you look for in a liquor, maybe you don't really like to drink. Liquor companies love to boast about their products being smooth and sweet. That's like bragging about being unmemorable and common. If I want to taste sweet floral water I'll put a packet of Splenda in my chamomile tea.
But if I want to have an experience, I mean a real expression of life I can cherish the memory of, I'll sip on the harshest mezcal and let its pungent aromas and flavors scorch my nostrils and burn my throat. Maybe I'm just a masochist, but to me, good mezcal should leave delicious scars on your memory, and this special edition from Mezcalito Pal'alma is truly an expression of rustic beauty.
So here's my attempt to describe and define my experience with this fine mezcal. It opens with a raw honey suckle and butter note as it first hits the tongue and swirls around the mouth. That sweetness is just setting you up for a sucker punch of vegetal flavor as the liquid meets every taste bud. It's like chewing on the stem of a fresh marigold, all strange grasses and chlorophyll. Then it quickly turns earthy, like the scents of damp soil and stone, bark and falling leaves, reminiscent of the coastal jungles of southern Mexico. The texture is thick and viscous coating your mouth and causing the flavors to linger long and bite hard.
It finishes like a desert grass fire started with gasoline and burns almost as hot. This mezcal is like a fist fight in a ghost town, rustic and violent but steeped in tradition and ever soulful.
I consider this mezcal one of the best I've ever had the pleasure to taste, not because it's easy to drink, but because it's strong flavors leave battle scars of abnormal pleasures on your tongue.
If you get lucky enough to come across it, drink it slow and cherish it. Also buy me a bottle. I'm running out.
Well this is my first attempt at a review of a mezcal and after reading it I don't think mezcal companies are really going to appreciate the way I speak of their products, but I hope you enjoyed it and it gave you a sense of how I experience my favorite agave distillates. You can look forward to more reviews as new and unique mezcal become available to me.
Thank you for reading.
To life and mezcal, drink deeply.
Salud!
-river