Reviews / Mal Bien Arroqueño - Chucho + Poncho Sánchez
Review · · by The Editors
Mal Bien Arroqueño - Chucho + Poncho Sánchez
An arroqueño that doesn't land as cleanly as the producer's others
Score: 3.0/5 agaves
- Producer: Agave Mixtape, Mal Bien
- Maestro: Chucho Sanchez, Poncho Sanchez
- Region: San Baltazar Chichicapam, Oaxaca
- Agave: Arroqueño
- ABV: 46.7%
- Price: $70 ($$)
Verdict
Mal Bien's single-maestro model usually produces remarkable bottles; this one is an outlier. The Chucho Poncho Sanchez batch doesn't show the producer's signature discipline, the elements don't cohere, the arroqueño density reads muddy rather than dense, and something upstream in production didn't click. Useful as a reminder that individual-maestro bottling isn't a guarantee of quality, just a commitment to transparency about who made what. Consensus 3.4 is close to right.
Not every single-maestro release hits
Tasting notes
Nose: Muddled dark fruit, faint medicinal edge
Palate: Dense but uncomposed, the elements don't integrate at 46.7%
Finish: Drying, slightly bitter, long
The bottom line
Pass. The Felix Ramirez arroqueño is the better Mal Bien arroqueño