Rezpiral - 2020 Espadin Mezcal by Abel Martinez

Rezpiral Mezcal - 2020 Espadin by Abel Martinez

750ml, 48% abv, Agaves grown for 8-10 years, mashed by tahona, double distilled on copper alambiques, 450 Liters, Feb. 2020

A Note from Drammers Club: Espadin is by far the most competitive and crowded category, and most mezcal you find on store shelves is espadin — often there are no other agave types to choose from here in the US. That’s partly because Espadin is the easiest to farm, only takes 8 to 10 years to grow the plants, and is far more efficient, with one batch producing more mezcal than other agave types. So it is very, very rare that a mezcalero bursts onto the scene with an espadin that really turns heards. But last year, Abel Martinez did just that. The New York Times selected 20 of the top rated mezcals to do a comparison, and ended up selecting Abel’s espadin as #1 of the bunch. “It was briny, deep and complex with a pronounced saline quality.” Shortly after that article came out, we tracked down some of the bottles ourselves, and sure enough it was true liquid gold. Happily, we are honored and very proud to have a great relationship with Rezpiral — in fact another espadin (a capon espadin by Aureliano Hernandez) was our first bottle (Drammers #001), and we’ve done 4 more with Rezpiral since including this one. So we reached out to Alex and happily we were able to secure this exclusive new batch of Abel’s espadin for our club. By the way, in addition to buying the mezcal from the producers at or above the normal market prices, Rezpiral also (on top of that) gives back 30% of the proceeds to the mezcaleros and mezcaleras, which is unheard of in the industry — one of the many reasons we’re so proud to work with them.

Btw, technically you’ll see on the bottle that it is “Spirits distilled from agave” and the word “mezcal” does not appear. That is because (like all Rezpiral products), they do not pay the fees associated with being certified as mezcal, though most if not all of their products would almost certainly meet the criteria if they did pay those fees. We’ve had many spirited debates here at Drammers Club over the years about the pros and cons of not getting certified, but regardless, take our word for it that (with or without the certification), this is distilled agave spirit at the very highest level of artistry.

This release is only available to registered Members and Observers of Drammers Club - More Information at Drammers.com

Drammers Pick #32