Pierde Almas Tequilana Weber

Verdict

Pierde Almas' tequilana is a category argument, take the plant Jalisco turns into tequila and ask what happens when you cook it in a pit and distill it like mezcal. The answer is: it becomes a completely different spirit. A useful bottle for settling tequila-vs-mezcal conversations, and genuinely good on its own terms. We'd put it near Derrumbes' experimental work for curiosity value.

Tasting notes

Nose: Cooked pineapple, mild smoke, a green herbal thread

Palate: Rich, round, surprisingly restrained for 52.5%. Pit-oven treatment of tequilana gives the plant a flavor profile tequila drinkers will half-recognize, there's familiar agave sweetness, but with wood smoke and stone underneath it

Finish: Warm, clean

The bottom line

Buy one for category education. Keep pouring for the liquid