Espadín Reposado - Amatlán

Batch: NGG-14+BIM

Release date: December 2023

Main image for the Espadín - Amatlán mezcal page of the Sin Gusano project mezcal library
Main image for the Espadín - Amatlán mezcal page of the Sin Gusano project mezcal library

At a glance:

  • Maguey: Espadín (A. Angustifolia)
  • Producer: Nicolas Garcia Gutierrez
  • Region: San Luis Amatlán, Miahuatlán District, Oaxaca
  • Cooking: Classic in-earth horno
  • Milling: Machete & Shredder
  • Fermentation: Slatted wooden tinas
  • Distillation: Copper alembic still with refrescadera. Mix of single & double passed.
  • Composition: Heads, hearts and tails
  • Batch size: 250 litres
  • Date of production: March 2021
  • ABV: 49.4%
  • Special Notes: Aged for 8 months in an Ex-Bimber Whisky cask, in their London distillery

We’re very pleased to present this special bottling, produced exclusively for Mezcal Appreciation Society members in collaboration with one the most exciting craft distillers on the UK whisky scene, Bimber.

Bimber distillery’s single malt whiskies are highly sought after, with releases often selling out in seconds. Alongside a range of small batch bottlings, Bimber produces a range of single cask single malt whiskies, including an ongoing iconic partnership with the London tube network – The Spirit of the Underground.

This exciting collaboration marks Sin Gusano’s first exploration into the world of aged spirits. To help explain the process, a lot of the commentary on this page has been provided by Bimber comms director and top taster, Matt McKay.

A copper pot still used to produce mezcal and other agave spirits

The stills at Bimber, London

Sampling agave spirits at Bimber, to jointly select a batch of mezcal that would age well.

Sampling agave spirits at Bimber, to jointly select a batch that would age well.

Unaged agave spirit going into the barrel for mezcal

Unaged agave spirit going into the barrel

In August of 2022 half of our Espadín batch NGG-14 was filled into an ex-whisky barrel from award-winning London distillery Bimber. There it was aged within a 30 litre oak cask (known in the whisky industry as a ‘blood tub’) for 8 months before being bottled for MAS members as a ‘reposado’ agave spirit, as batch NGG-14+BIM.

When a spirit is filled into a cask, it begins to ‘mature’ through its interaction with the wood, the char inside of the barrel and a controlled, gentle oxygenation. The process is both varied and complicated with a huge number of variables all affecting the end produced spirit – from the type of oak and its individual grain through to the size of the cask, the number of times it has been used before to mature spirits and the climactic conditions (temperature and humidity) that exist within the maturation environment.

The Bimber sampling lab where mezcal is ageing

The Bimber sampling lab

Jon & Matt taste testing a few months into the ageing process of the Espadín Reposado - Amatlán mezcal

Jon & Matt taste testing a few months into the ageing process

This Espadín was aged in an ex-Bimber whisky cask, therefore the small 30 litre cask had been used once before to produce single malt for the London distillery. This reuse of the cask has lowered the levels of oak extraction that the cask will provide for any new spirit fill (slowing the maturation process), whilst also imbuing the spirit with the flavours of the single malt which was matured within the cask prior.

A barrel pouring mezcal into a funnel Finishing the ageing of this batch of mezcal

Finishing the ageing

ABV testing the finished reposado mezcal

ABV testing the finished reposado

Smaller casks such as blood tubs mature spirits much quicker than more standard, larger cask formats. This is because the liquid to wood surface area is much higher and therefore more of the spirit is in contact with the wood at any one time. This has a benefit in that the maturation process is quicker – with a spirit extracting and purifying far faster than in a larger cask. However, it comes at the expense of a higher ‘angel’s share’ – the evaporation loses that are inherent with maturation.

The char within the cask helps to breakdown the wood to allow the spirit to penetrate the cask – this both aids maturation through the interaction of the spirit with the sugars contained within the wood, whilst at the same time, it also provides a purifying effect via charcoal filtration.

Jon Darby from the Sin Gusano Mezcal project stood with Matt from Bimber whiskey distillery in front of a wall of barrels ageing mezcal

Gracias Bimber for the fun colab Heads up to whisky fans - there’s a special single cask Bimber release in their pipeline. You guessed it - aged in this very same ex-agave cask!

House Tasting Notes:

The San Luis Amatalan Espadín has reacted particularly well to its time spent within the ex-Bimber whisky cask. The spirit still presents with its core vegetal character intact, but is now complemented by a number of additional nuances inherent to being aged within a cask.

Throughout the 8 months of ageing the ex-Bimber whisky cask, it has not only developed maturity, it has also been permeated with the flavours of the Bimber whisky that was held in the cask before it – bright fruits, controlled spices and a textural, oily mouthfeel.

This addition is not handled by happenstance, Matt from Bimber and Jon from Sin Gusano have monitored the cask waiting for the perfect time to end the ageing process and bottle this now reposado Espadin for MAS members.

A bottle of Espadin mezcal produced for the Sin Gusano project

This batch is now out of stock, take a look at the full range available here...

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