Mexicat - Raicilla Mezcal (750ml)
Mexicat is the brainchild of Jorge Alvarez, who discovered raicilla while working in the tequila industry. He sees raicilla as the highest form of spirits distilled from agave.
Mexicat raicilla is 100% agave Maximiliana, a large silvestran agave of unusual deep flavor, specifically a local variety known as lechugilla tipica (there are three main Maximiliana varieties: típica, pencas caidas, and pico de aguilar). Maximiliana looks like a giant cousin of the famous tobalá: they share a reputation for complexity.
Mexicat has started a massive sustainability program with the Maximiliana. Its major fields are now 4-5 years old. Mexicat raicilla is now 80% wild agaves; that percentage will be reduced as the cultivated fields come on line.
Every bottle has an individual hand-made huichol bead mask; people collect them. From Mascota in the Sierra Madre Occidental, double-distilled in copper at the destilería of 4th-generation José and Benito Salceda, agronomist brothers and raicilla pioneers deeply engaged in a large sustainability project cultivating agave Maximiliana (called lechuguilla). Flavorful and soft. Double distillation tends to show a smoother side of raicilla, and the 40% abv nicely balances the intensity of the wild Maximiliana. 40% abv
