Reviews / El Silencio Umbra

Review · · by The Editors

El Silencio Umbra

Tobalá-espadín at 43% – commercial wild agave stripped of its reasons for being wild

Score: 2.5/5 agaves

El Silencio Umbra bottle
  • Producer: El Silencio Mezcal
  • Region: Oaxaca
  • Agave: Espadin, Tobala
  • ABV: 43%
  • Price: $55 ($$)

Verdict

Clean production, uninterested in the wild agave's character, a bottle that mislabels itself by calling this wild-agave mezcal in any meaningful sense. Skip; if you want the same money spent on a bottle that actually cares about its wild-agave base, anything from Vago or Nuestra Soledad will do more work.

Commercial wild-agave is a contradiction that bottles like this keep confirming

Tasting notes

Nose: Wildflower. Then faint smoke, cooked agave, a trace of sour fruit

Palate: Thin. At 43%, tobalá's contribution stripped by proof and production. When a tobalá ensamble can't make the tobalá audible, the category label is doing the work the agave should be doing

Finish: With a faint floral fade and a muted vegetal tail. Short

The bottom line

A skip

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