I, I’m so in love with you. Whatever you want to do… is alright with meee eeee eee eee eeeeeeee.
Hola mezcal clubbers! For the June edition of the Mezcal Mews, we’re focusing on the wonderful world of Ensembles, (ON-sahm-blay) which literally translates to, “assemble.” They’re essentially blends of different varietals in one bottle, kind of like how a Meritage is a blend of different varietals of wine grapes. While it might seem like these are some promotional gimmick, they’re actually more traditional than the single varietal expressions that many of us were first introduced to in this modern mezcal market.
Back in The Beforetime, farmers or jimadores would just find whatever types of agave were growing in their fields and use those to roast, then distill. People weren’t in the practice of cultivating only Jabalí to make sweet juicy juice. They’d use whatever the earth provided.
Ensembles take a lot of skill to produce, and our master Maestro for this series is Rómulo Sånchez Parada, from the beloved brand, Rey Campero. For our shipment this month, we’re able to mix and match the single expressions to create our own version of a blend, but Rómulo does things the old school way. Instead of loading just a single type of agave into the horno (earthen oven) he’s loading the 3 different types at the same time. Imagine putting sweet potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms on a sheet tray in your oven at the same time. They’ll all cook at different rates. The same is true of these agave. They have to be cut and loaded into the oven with great precision to ensure they all cook evenly and produce the yield Rómulo is looking for.
Three varietals is a challenge for sure, though you may remember in our April shipment from Melate, there was an Ensemble from Artemio in Ocotepec that had SEVEN varietals in one. The skill involved here is mind blowing.
So don’t sleep on Ensembles! While you feel like the cool kids might all be sipping Sierra Negra these days, these blends represent tradition and craft in a way that embodies the true spirit of these spirits.
Salúd.