Rey Campero Tepextate Mezcal

One of the best Tepextate Mezcals you could find.

Rey Campero (meaning King of the Countryside) is made by Rómulo Sánchez Parada in Candeleria Yegloe, a tiny village of 150 people in the mountains of southern Oaxaca. Rómulo learned to make Mezcal from his father and grandfather but the family’s roots in Mezcal go back to his great grandmother Clara Manzano Rios who built the family’s palenque in 1870 and began distilling with her husband Nicolas Sanchez. This was the first palenque to be built in Candelaria Yegolé. Flash forward more than a century, Rómulo finally got his Mezcal brand started in 2012. Today, Rey Campero is imported to the U.S. by Mezcal savant William Scanlan who runs the awesomely named Heavy Metl Imports.

Rey Campero Tepextate Mezcal is made from Tepextate agave or Agave marmorata. It’s been cultivated by the Sanchez family for decades and there’s nobody who can work it like Rómulo Sánchez Parada. After the wild agave is harvested at 15-18 years, it’s distilled in a copper pot still under the strict supervision of Maestro Mezcalero Rómulo. Bottled at 96 proof, this expressive Mezcal offers white flowers and yellow pepper on the nose that lead you to flavors of coriander, citrus, banana leaf, tobacco, pepper, and sweet smoke.