Reviews / Riquezas de Oaxaca Espadin

Review · · by The Editors

Riquezas de Oaxaca Espadin

Enrique Hernández's espadín – steady but soft-spoken

Score: 3.0/5 agaves

Riquezas de Oaxaca Espadin bottle
  • Producer: Riquezas de Oaxaca Mezcal
  • Maestro: Enrique Hernández Zenea
  • Region: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
  • Agave: Espadin
  • ABV: 44%
  • Price: $40 ($)

Verdict

Riquezas de Oaxaca is well-made and unambitious – a quiet espadín that does every textbook thing and no memorable one. Competes with the Banhez single-village bottlings without clearly beating any of them. Consensus 3.5 is a shade high; we score it 3.0. Inoffensive, which is itself a small offense at this price.

A bottle designed not to alarm you

Tasting notes

Nose: Cooked agave, clean smoke, mild green herb

Palate: 44% sits right on the line; the espadín sweetness is present, the smoke is managed, nothing pushes. Middle-of-the-road in the best and also the most limiting sense

Finish: Clean, gentle. Stays medium

The bottom line

Pass in favor of Banhez Ensamble or any mezcal under the Nuestra Soledad label