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The best mezcal at Total Wine
Total Wine has the broadest mezcal selection among the national US chains we tracked. The selection is uneven – what to buy and what to walk past.
By The Editors · · 7 min read
Total Wine carries somewhere between thirty and seventy mezcal SKUs at a typical store, depending on state. That's the deepest selection of any national retailer with a physical footprint, and it includes the obvious bartender bottles (Vida, Banhez, Vago) plus a handful of single-village and named-maestro releases that don't reliably show up at K&L or Astor or specialty shops.
The selection is uneven. The middle of the rack is full of mid-tier bottles in the $40-60 range that don't punch above their weight. The bottom is a mix of bargain-bin pours we'd skip and one outlier worth grabbing. The top end has real bottles if you know what you're looking at.
The picks
Real Minero Espadín ensamble – $70
Real Minero Espadin, Largo, Tripon, Barril – 4.5/5 · Real Minero · $70
The Ángeles family's clay-pot espadín-led ensamble out of San Baltazar Chichicapam. 46% ABV, 4.5/5, and one of the few legitimate clay-pot ancestral bottles that reliably appears at a national retailer. Total Wine's stock is inconsistent but when it's there, this is the bottle to take.
Vago Mexicano – $70
Vago Mexicano - Aquilino – 4.5/5 · Vago Mezcal · $70
Vago's mexicano release scores 4.5/5 in our catalog – clean, mineral, 50% ABV, and one of the better-priced examples of the underrated wild-mexicano category. Vago's distribution is wider than most named-maestro labels and Total Wine carries multiple Vago bottles; the mexicano is the one we'd reach for first.
Mestiza Negra Espadín – $22
Mestiza Negra Espadin – 4.5/5 · Mestiza Negra · $20
$22 Matatlán espadín, 45% ABV, named maestra Doña Juana, 4.5/5 in our catalog. Different conversation from the Real Minero and Vago bottles above – those are sipping mezcals at $70; this is the bottle for cocktails, weeknight pours, and showing someone what mezcal can taste like at $22.
Banhez Espadín-Barril – $35
Banhez Espadin & Barril – 3.5/5 · Banhez Mezcal · $35
The cooperative-made espadín-barril ensamble. 42% ABV, 3.5/5 – the standard recommendation when readers ask for the next bottle above the under-$30 floor. Total Wine's most-stocked artesanal bottle in the budget tier; the bottle we'd reach for if we wanted the cheapest serious mezcal at this retailer for cocktails or weeknight pours.
Lalocura Tobalá – $70
Lalocura Tobala – 4.5/5 · Lalocura Mezcal · $70
Sósima Olivera and Lalo Ángeles's clay-pot tobalá out of Santa Catarina Minas. 49% ABV, 4.5/5. Lalocura's distribution doesn't reliably reach every Total Wine, but in stores that carry it, this is one of the most aromatic clay-pot tobalás at the $70 tier.
Fidencio Clásico – $45
Fidencio Clasico – 3.5/5 · Fidencio Mezcal · $45
Fidencio's standard espadín bottling. 45% ABV, 3.5/5 – the bottle that lives between Banhez at $35 and the Real Minero/Vago $70 tier above. Honest Matatlán-area work; nothing that dazzles, nothing that disappoints. The right bottle for a stocked-up home bar.
Bottles to skip
Casamigos Mezcal ($72, 1.5/5), Ilegal Reposado ($70, 1.5/5), 400 Conejos in any expression. Celebrity- or marketing-led bottles in the $50-200 band that don't deliver against their price. Total Wine stocks them because they sell. The shelf next to them usually has a $40 producer bottle that does what these do better.
Total Wine's online catalog occasionally surfaces bottles the physical store doesn't carry – if you're in a state where shipping is allowed, the website is worth checking before any in-store visit. Pricing is roughly comparable to specialty retailers like K&L; the convenience is the differentiator.
Reasonable order if you're standing in a Total Wine for the first time: the Mestiza at $22 (cheapest serious bottle on the shelf), Banhez at $35 (the next-best dollar in cocktail mezcal), Fidencio Clásico at $45 (the everyday espadín), then any Vago or Real Minero release at the $70 tier. The bottles between those points aren't necessarily wrong – they just aren't necessary.
Frequently asked
Does Total Wine have a good mezcal selection?
Yes – the deepest of any national US retailer, including named-maestro bottles from Real Minero, Vago, Mestiza Negra, and Bozal. The store mixes serious producer bottles with marketing-led labels, so the selection rewards knowing what you're looking for.
What's the cheapest mezcal at Total Wine that's actually good?
Mestiza Negra Espadín at $22. We score it 4.5/5 – the cheapest bottle on the Total Wine shelf scoring 4 or higher in our catalog. 45% ABV, named maestra, pit-oven, copper still.
Is Casamigos mezcal good?
By our rubric, no. It's a $50+ bottle that drinks closer to a $25 commercial mezcal. Celebrity-brand mezcals (Casamigos, Dos Hombres) typically lag actual producer bottles at the same price by 1-2 points on our 5-agave scale.