“Mezcal is a great primer for the kind of deep thoughts that make you want to turn off your cellphone and lose track of time, which works out perfectly when you visit the town of San Dionisio Ocotepec, Oaxaca, where they have more than a few palenques, hardly any cell service, and listening to the locals speak Zapotec, you’ll will be as likely to check the century as the hour”. Don Lucio and his sons represent the third and fourth generations of mezcaleros in the Morales Family, and the first to work entirely with agave grown by the family. The finished product is a beautiful, easy drinking mezcal that is true to the place and people who created it. Complex enough to be enjoyed on its own, at 91 proof it’s also assertive enough to shine through in cocktails where lower ABV mezcals can easily get lost. It has aromas of roasted meat, tropical fruit, ground corn, lime pith, and pine tar, with flavors of leather, caramelized banana, mineral, and barley on the palate.