Reviews / Claridad Espadin
Review ·
Claridad Espadin
Onofre Ortiz's standard espadín – the Miahuatlán teaching bottle before the capón
Score: 3.5/5 agaves
- Producer: Claridad Mezcal
- Maestro: Onofre Ortiz
- Region: Miahuatlán, Oaxaca
- Agave: Espadin
- ABV: 45.5%
- Price: $40–90 ($$)
Verdict
The non-capón Ortiz espadín is most useful as the other half of a comparison pour. Taste it next to the capón sibling and fifteen minutes with it teaches more about espadín production than a month of reading. On its own it's respectable Miahuatlán mid-tier, disciplined, clean, honestly proofed, without the concentration that separates Ortiz's best work. Buy both; drink them side by side.
Drink this one first. It's the reference that tells you what the capón is doing differently
Tasting notes
Nose: Sweet cooked agave with a kitchen-fresh pineapple-skin lift, warm stone beneath, mineral damp at the low end, and a thread of wood smoke that clears instead of smothering. Pour it neat and the aromatics keep opening for ten minutes, not the sign of a commercial espadín
Palate: Clean and mid-weight at 45.5%. Miahuatlán's village signature shows as a saline spine under the agave sweetness, and the palenque's production discipline is visible in how the midpalate holds without heat
Finish: Drying, iron-tinged. A peppery edge arrives late and lingers past where most mid-tier espadíns fade. Long
The bottom line
The teaching bottle. For daily drinking, reach for the capón or a cheaper mid-tier espadín