Cinco Sentidos Jabali y Sierra Negra, Reynaldo Alejandro (103 proof) 750ml

This is a wild agave bottling from mezcalero Reynaldo Alejandro, part of the 5 Sentidos (Cinco Sentidos) roster built by Jason Cox out of El Destilado restaurant in Oaxaca City. The whole project runs on a simple idea: name the person who made the mezcal, name the village, name the agave, and pay above market for the batch. Cox has stuck to that since launching the export label in 2017, and the 10% profit-share back to producers is baked into the business, not a marketing line. The label says Reynaldo Alejandro's name, not Jason Cox's — that's the point. This particular batch is a blend of two wild agave species, Jabalí and Sierra Negra, distilled together rather than released as single-varietal expressions. Jabalí tends to bring a greener, more vegetal and mineral backbone, while Sierra Negra leans fruitier and rounder — together they land somewhere between herbal, earthy, and bright, with the kind of layered complexity you get from wild-harvested agave that's grown slow and uneven in the hillsides rather than farmed in rows. Bottled at 103 proof, it's not shy — expect smoke up front, a punch of raw agave and roasted earth, then it settles into something fruitier and more structured as it opens up. This is not a sipping mezcal to rush. Give it air, or better, a few drops of water, and let it unfold. Pour it neat in a copal cup if you have one, alongside something salty and charred — grilled octopus, carne asada, a wedge of aged cheese — or just orange slices and salt the old-fashioned way. It's also sturdy enough to anchor a smoky mezcal Negroni if you want to put it to work. We carry a handful of 5 Sentidos bottlings at Off Premise, each one tied to a different mezcalero and village across Oaxaca and Puebla, and this Jabalí y Sierra Negra blend is one of the more intense, wild-forward expressions in that lineup. Worth seeking out if you want to taste a specific place and a specific person's hand, not just a category.