Del Maguey

I had some Del Maguey Chichicapa Monday for the first time, at @Mountrain's suggestion. It is incredibly complex, and morphed furiously in the glass over 45 minutes. At first the nose smelled like smokey horse shit, but that changed in a very good way. Loved the Chichicapa. I don't know that I would generalise about Mezcals being of desirable quality. I had my Del Maguey at a very up-scale pricey DC Mexican restaurant, which carried 5 mezcals and about 75 tequilas. All of their Mezcals were Del Maguey products, and when I asked about other Mezcals they went quiet on the subject. No doubt there are other high quality Mezcals, but apparently few famous ones.

I also nosed, but did not shell out the $ 35 for a dram, the Del Maguey Pechuga (pechuga = bird breast in Spanish). Smoked chicken drippings are added to the agave mash...it smells like barbecued chicken.

I'm a big fan of tequila and mezcal. Unfortunately there aren't that many high quality mezcals generally available, but it's a growing category.

Del Maguey is the first of the companies getting small village mezcal out into the world and there are some really interesting ones in their range, everything from Tobala (which is heavily minerally and really strange) to the Pechuga (which afaik is made with fruit and a chicken carcass in the still rather than smoked drippings).

There's a great article about Ron Cooper of Del Maguey in last week's online Class Magazine: diffordsguide.com/class-magazine/…

So it sounds like the Chichicapa is the best bet for a peat-freak to get into some Mezcal. Yes?

@OlJas You'll be fine with most traditionally made Mezcals - they're pretty much all use agave cooked in pits or smoky ovens, so you'll get a nice slab of smoke whichever you try.

It's not peat smoke, so be don't expect an Ardbeg :)