Pechuga Del Maguey PEC-131 49% vs Pierde Almas Conejo 2015 Lote: 06-PC 51%
Pechuga Del Maguey PEC-131 49%
This is a special occasion Mezcal only made in season and drunk at important events. It starts with a Minero that’s already been double distilled and for its third distillation has wild apples pineapples bananas and other nuts and spices AND a whole cleaned chicken thrown into the still.
I keep forgetting how amazingly complex Mezcal is for an unaged spirit. Sweetly composting earthy mulch. Gritty and flecked with flints and rock salt in turn. Ambrosial the way you hand is sticky from handling uber ripe fruit. Burnt brush, cade, birch tar, cloves, licorice. Yes a lot of sweet black licorice. One of those sweeter-salty Mezcals more syrupy than deeply phenolic. Also interesting is the oily and zesty grapefruit/pomelo rind note on the tongue that arrives before the onslaught of smoky earthy grizzly grittiness. So despite the chicken and the extra fruit and spices in this still, the effect of the third distillation is a rounder sweeter and a much more fruity-friendly Mezcal.
Pierde Almas Conejo 2015 Lote: 06-PC 51%
Conejo means rabbit. Other than that, the process is very similar, a Mezcal is redistilled with fruit nuts and spices and a whole rabbit this time.
This one is a sharper saltier Mezcal with brine and pickles, also quite some bracing green notes like celeriac, angelica, thyme, coriander and galbanum. Clean flints, and with clay-ey or chalky notes sitting on some moist earth. Seems to have retained the burnt brush – smouldering firewood – herb drawer on fire notes but it remains quite high toned without the growling salty and phenolic base of regular mezcals. Also this is one smooth and clean rabbit without a hint of game. Not sure if this is an improvement over double distilled mezcals.
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