I love meeting fellow geeks.
People who are passionate about the thing that they love, whatever that may be. They’re even luckier if they’re able to work in a field that they love. Let’s face it, many of us work to live, rather than live to work.
One of the lucky ones is Dr Ivan Saldana. He is a world renowned expert in agave – and it’s not just for the mezcal. He studied plant biochemistry at the University of Sussex, where his research focused primarily on understanding the evolutionary path of agave. This passion for understanding the plan led to his work back in Mexico, and both Montelobos Mezcal, and the Ancho Reyes liqueurs.
Dr Saldana is passionate about what he does – that comes across almost immediately, despite my chat to him being the last of a long day in Manchester, and a busy tour of the UK. Within minutes of sitting down with the three spirits in front of us, he talked to me of his work, ably assisted by a sample or two of the spirits themselves.
Montelobos is an artisanal mezcal made in Santiago Matatlán Oaxaca. It uses 100% organically certified agave espadín – whilst we are used to hearing of tequila made with Weber blue agave, mezcal can be made with any form of the plant. Espadín offers a deeper more herbal flavour, which is what attracted Ivan to the plant. In most cases, companies who bottle mezcal will source it from a number of farms – blending it to a consistent flavour. Ivan wanted to be able to trace the history of each bottle, and so found a single family owned distillery, who use traditional production methods, from planting, to harvesting, to distilling, and both he and the family are very proud of this level of both the traceability and history of each bottle.
So, what does it taste like?
On the nose, there’s the smoke, an almost ozone-y note, and a hint of sweetness. On the palate, it’s layers of herbal and vegetal notes, most prominently green peppers, through to an Islay whisky smoke, but with a salty sweet finish, that lingers deliciously.
There’s no wonder this suits cocktails beautifully, though personally, I need a chill autumn day, a little cube of ice, and a good shot in my glass. I’d happily sip it lazily.
The two other spirits in the collection are somewhat different creatures. Ancho Reyes (the original) was discovered by Ivan on his travels. The recipe is held by the Reyes family, and the only one known to be made with the Ancho chile. Ancho is a Poblano chile which is left to ripen and then dry on the plant itself (much like many grapes are). It’s often used in Mexican cooking, but here the family have infused it into a liqueur.
If you like smoke, you’ll love this. It’s rich, deep and smoky, with an almost dried fruit note to it, and the finish is sweet with a hint of spice on the back of the palate. Almost immediately, my mind started wanting to cook with it. Look out for tomorrow’s blog post for a fantastically sweet recipe that benefits from the rich notes of this liqueur.
It’s younger sibling, Poblano, uses the younger peppers – before they’re dried. It has much more of the green pepper savoury about it, lighter herbals, and something almost celery-like about it. There’s also a little more spice with this, and sweetness again, but it’s fresh and clean.
Though it’s not quite widely available in the UK yet, this is something to put on your Christmas list.
I know it’ll be on mine.
With thanks to Ivan for his patience, in putting up with my questions, and Mangrove for letting me stop by and sample!