El Rey - Zapoteco Joven - Espadin Mezcal
El Rey Description
l Rey Zapoteco Espadin is made from the family’s estate grown “capon”, fully mature, Espadin agaves that are cut by hand with machete and hoe and cooked using oak wood in an underground conical oven made of river rocks covered with soil. The cooked agaves are crushed by horse-driven Chilean quarry tahona. The crushed agave fibers are fermented in open air pine vats using natural yeasts. The fermented agave is distilled twice in copper stills to yield a 45% ABV Espadin mezcal that is a highly approachable, versatile mezcal with a nice floral nose and pepper spice, and a clean, lightly smoky finish. You will get some minerality, owing to its surroundings.
El Rey Zapoteco Mezcal
One of Oaxaca’s oldest artisanal mezcal brands that still produces its mezcal in-house, El Rey Zapoteco was founded in 1960 by Don Serafín Hernandez Blas in Santiago Matatlán. Today, the business is run by the family matriarch Doña Juana and Don Serafin’s sons. Caretakers of agave fields that routinely yield some of Oaxaca’s largest agaves, the Hernandez family are faithful stewards of production techniques that remain the same as they were at their founding.
