What exactly makes a Mezcal a Mezcal? This pride of Mexico is not well known compared to Tequila. We talk about how it’s made, what is required to call it a Mezcal, drink some of it, and smoke the Drew Estate Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Aged cigar. Cassie asks about ghosts. We consider it carefully.
The Cigar
Pappy Van Winkle 6 X 50 Toro
Barrel Fermented Cigars by Drew Estate. Barrel-fermented, Kentucky tapanegra-style wrapper over a Mexican San Andres wrapper. Then for the filler a blend of Indonesian, Dominican Republic, and Nicaraguan. MSRP $15.
I can’t tell you how much we enjoy these cigars. We have had a few of these cigars and the never disappoint. When you look at this stick one of the first things you notice (aside from the label) is that from the band to foot the wrapper is one color and from the band to the head the wrapper is another color. When you get around to taking the band off, there will be a solid line all the way around the stick where the different wrappers meet. Believe me, you will notice a change in flavor when you smoke through that transition.
Woody with a little cedar and barrel-fermented wrapper does add a little hint of liquor. For the price, this will not be most folks every day cigar, but when you want something special, we would highly recommend at least one of these!
The Liquor
Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal
Maguey (pronounced “ma-gay”): Espadin. Angustifolia Agave. Aged 6-8 years and roasted 3-8 days. Crema de Mezcal is a combination of Miel de maguey (un-fermented syrup of the roost agave) and Mezcal San Luis del Rio – double distilled from 100% mature agave Espadin. Crema de Mezcal has a nose of roast maguey with vanilla and pear, a creamy almond, apple, coffee, pineapple pallate and a long sweet smokey orange finish. As the five day maguey roast is uncovered, the Miel of a few of the sweetest magueys are pressed out. Ten percent Miel de Maguey is added to ninety percent San Luis del Rio resulting in a 80 proof Crema de Mezcal.
Nose of roasted maguey with vanilla and pear. For the taste, a creamy almond, apple, coffee, and pineapple. The finish is a long sweet smokey orange. MSRP $40.
Now that we are through that let me tell you that this is a sweet drink. Just a hint of tequila and the vanilla and orange do come through. But wow is this drink a sweet. Not sugar sweet. You have to try it to understand. In the show we attempt to describe it so listen to that.
Overall a pretty good drink. I have not had a Mezcal before, but I will be having some more to see where this fits in with everything else.
The More
Barrel Fermented leaves:
Kentucky grown leaves are grown in Hopkinsville where they are smoked in barns for 14 days before being transferred to St. James Parish, Louisiana. There they undergo a year of aging in spent whiskey barrels.
Mezcal
Mezcal is a point of Mexican cultural pride, having roots in pulque, a slightly alcoholic drink made from fermented agave mash. Eventually, the distilling process evolved to be based on the extraction of pinas, or hearts, of the maguey, or agave plant. The pinas are then cooked in the ground imparting the spirit with a typically savory, smoked flavor. Usually, with 8 or more wood types.
By contrast, tequila is usually steam-cooked and only produced in designated regions with only blue agave.
Traditionally, the cooked hears are crushed with a tahona, a large stone wheel pulled by horses and then diluted and fermented in barrels. Classifications are similar to tequila. Joven is the term used for mezcals aged under two months or not at all. Reposados are rested in barrels for two months to a year. Anejos are aged from one to three years. Though not yet an official category, extra-anejos represent mezcals aged over three years. This one we are having has been aged 3 to 8 years, so it would be classified as an extra-anejos.
There are 3 basic categories. Mezcal, Artisanal Mezcal, and Ancestral Mezcal. They differ in their level of automation and tooling. All must be from 100% Agave.
Finally, mezcals produced under those three sub-categories are further labelled with six finishes:
Blanco (white): un-aged spirit
Reposado (rested): stored in barrels for between 2 to 12 months. The new MON-070 revision now allows Mexican woods to be used, as opposed to previous regulations that only allowed oak barrels to be use for aging.
Anejo (aged): stored in barrels for 12 months and up.
Madurado (glass matured): this category bottles ancestral mezcal to mature in glass bottles.
Distilado Con (distilled with): when a spirit is re-distilled with fruits, grains, or raw meats (most commonly chicken or turkey breast for pechuga styles) for addition flavor.
Abocado Con (flavored with): mezcals that are macerated or flavored with flavour essences or with an added worm after distillation.
Cassie Question:
The ghost thing. Terrible accidents take you before your time so you become a ghost because you have unfinished business, Ok. Sometimes they say they’re ghosts because they don’t know they’re dead, but no one says it’s because they died in their sleep. So. . .
Is it because they just think they’re still asleep? You don’t know you’re dead if you die in your sleep, right?
