Cinco Sentidos Espadin con Picudo, Eduardo 'Lalo' Perez Cortez (110 proof) 750ml

Eduardo "Lalo" Pérez Cortés has been making mezcal in Miahuatlán his whole life, and this ensamble is one of the more interesting bottlings to come out of his palenque: a blend of Espadín, the workhorse agave of Oaxacan mezcal, and Picudo, a less commonly bottled varietal that brings a greener, more herbaceous edge to the glass. Where Espadín gives you the familiar roasted-agave backbone — earthy, a little smoky, citrus-peel brightness — Picudo pushes the profile toward something more floral and vegetal, almost grassy, with a minty lift on the finish. The result is a mezcal that reads as classic and a little unexpected at the same time. This bottle comes from 5 Sentidos (also seen as Cinco Sentidos), the label Jason Cox built out of El Destilado, his restaurant in Oaxaca City. Cox's whole model runs against the grain of how a lot of mezcal gets marketed: every label names the actual mezcalero, their village, the agave species, and the still used for that batch — Lalo's name is on this bottle, not Cox's. He pays above market for the agave and runs a 10% profit-share back to the producers he works with, which is the kind of detail worth knowing if you care where your money actually goes. "Drink With Respect" isn't just a tagline here — it's baked into how the brand operates. Bottled at 110 proof, this is not a sipping mezcal for the faint of heart — it's built with enough structure to stand up to a splash of water or a few cubes, and it holds its own in a mezcal Negroni or a smoky riff on a Paloma. Neat, it rewards patience: let it open up and the herbal, floral side of the Picudo starts to separate from the roasted agave char. Pair it with something grilled and a little charred — carne asada, grilled octopus, charred scallions — or with anything citrus-forward that can meet it halfway. We've got a handful of these on the shelf at Off Premise, along with other 5 Sentidos bottlings from different villages and