Reviews / Tehuana Joven

Review · · by The Editors

Tehuana Joven

Las Margaritas joven – terroir better than the proof allows

Score: 3.0/5 agaves

Tehuana Joven bottle
  • Producer: Tehuana Mezcal
  • Maestro: Petronilo Rosario Altamirano
  • Region: Las Margaritas, Oaxaca
  • Agave: Espadin
  • ABV: 40%
  • Price: $40 ($)

Verdict

The Las Margaritas / San Pedro Totolapam terroir is one of Oaxaca's more interesting under-explored zones – jungle-adjacent, high-mineral, specific. Tehuana's joven hints at it without delivering, because 40% can't carry what the ground gives. Reach for Mezcal Koch or Real Minero's Chichicapa bottles when you want this kind of terroir with enough proof to hear it.

Las Margaritas deserves a higher-proof ambassador

Tasting notes

Nose: Green agave, light smoke, a mineral top note, a trace of fruit

Palate: 40% is the bottle's ceiling – Petronilo Rosario Altamirano's work in the San Pedro Totolapam jungle shows in the vegetal-chalky signature, but the proof keeps the architecture from committing

Finish: Short-medium, clean, vegetal

The bottom line

A pass. Terroir is there; proof isn't

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