Santo Cuviso Lechuguilla Pechuga de Gallina (75cl, 47.5%)

Santo Cuviso Lechuguilla Pechuga de Gallina is a 47.5% wild agave spirit from the Copper Canyon of Chihuahua, in a 75cl bottle. It is lechuguilla rather than mezcal, made from Agave shrevei harvested at 12 to 15 years in the Sierra Madre Occidental. The agave is roasted in underground stone ovens, fermented in century-old stone vats and double-distilled in copper pots. A third distillation over skinless chicken breast, the pechuga step, softens the spirit. It is made in Batopilas by fourth-generation distiller Dolores González Torres. The nose brings dry earth, bitter chocolate, cocoa, fresh fig, honey, eucalyptus and avocado leaf. On the palate there are apple, oak, cooked agave, dried mint, straw, vanilla and honey, ending with a soft, rounded finish.