5 Sentidos Corazon de Espadin (Cream Private Batch)

Most mezcal reaches you after balancing heads, hearts, and tails — the full distillation run mixed together to achieve a drinkable ABV and consistent flavor. This bottle of Corazon de Espadín, distilled by Eduardo "Lalo" Pérez Cortés in El Nanche, Miahuatlán, takes a different approach entirely. Lalo set aside only the corazón — the middle cut — from each of his distillation runs in October 2025, capturing the richest flavors without any of the volatile top notes or heavier tail compounds. He blended eighty liters of these hearts together for this world premiere batch with 5 Sentidos, a label founded by Jason Cox that names the mezcalero and village on every bottle, pays above-market rates, and runs a ten percent profit-share back to producers. The raw material here matters too. Lalo harvested quiotudo Espadín — agaves that had sent up their flowering stalk, or quiote — from his own land in La Angustia. These plants, having redirected energy toward reproduction, develop different sugar profiles than younger piñas. After roasting the agaves in an underground conical oven with oak for seven days, Lalo and his family chopped them with machetes, then mashed the pieces with large mesquite hammers in a wooden trough. Fermentation took about two weeks in sabino cypress tanks before Lalo double-distilled the mash in copper alembic stills at his small family palenque. Expect a mezcal that shows off Espadín without the rough edges or grassy volatility that heads and tails can bring. The nose should be clean and focused — roasted agave, oak smoke, subtle minerality. On the palate, look for richer mid-range flavors: cooked maguey, stone fruit, maybe a hint of vanilla from the wood. The finish is likely smooth and persistent, without the sharp bite or heavy oiliness you'd get from a full-run blend. This is a bottle for sipping neat or pairing with grilled fish, coastal Oaxacan mole, or ceviche. We're pouring it at our Lincoln Park shop because it's the kind of mezcal that teaches you what the heart cut actually tastes like.