Mezcal Spotlight: Our House Tastings

By Jonathan Lockwood

A year and a half of these columns, and I've sent you to every mezcalería, tasting room and copita hangout I could talk my way into. This month I'm sending you somewhere different: my own backyard.

Sometimes I'm asked by those who've been to tastings in centro just what Cecilia and I do differently. I respect every one of the people I've profiled in this column—most of them are friends, and I'll keep showing up to their tastings as long as I'm upright. But ours is its own thing.

Start with where you're headed. It's a short drive out of centro, up toward the mountains of La Malcontenta, between Mac Hospital and Alcocer. No traffic, no bar noise, nowhere else you need to be. You end up on our quiet terraza, looking out over a maguey garden that gets a little bigger every year.

Most tastings in centro pour you through a handful of mezcales—smart, focused, usually built around a theme or a producer. Ours goes the other direction. I lay out ten, sometimes more, deliberately all over the map: different states, different agaves, different distillation methods, some rustic and some polished. And don't worry—these aren't full pours. You get a real taste of each. If one grabs you, that's what the rest of the bottle is for.

Cecilia and I have spent years figuring out what works with that many different mezcales in a row, and we've landed on a spread of meats, sausage, and cheeses, plus fruit, nuts, and crackers to reset the palate between pours. The one thing people always ask about afterward is the ate—a sliceable paste made from membrillo, the quince fruit, that turns out to be about as good a partner to mezcal as anything we've found. It disappears fast.

One more thing: I recently interviewed a mezcalero in centro I have real respect for, and he said it himself with a grin—if you show up expecting to drink, you might wait the better part of an hour before a glass reaches your hand. The knowledge he shares in that hour is remarkable. But that's not how we run things. I talk plenty, but the sipping starts early and keeps going alongside the stories, not after them.

How you end up on our terraza varies. Sometimes I just decide it's time and send a broadcast out on WhatsApp to the list of folks who've asked to be included. Other times someone reaches out wanting a private tasting for a group of friends from in or out of town, or just looking for a different kind of evening than the usual restaurant reservation. Those tend to be some of the best nights we host. I try to keep the groups to twelve or under—small enough that everyone's actually part of one conversation—but I can flex a bit larger if needed. And if you're a party of three or four hoping for a private tasting, I can usually round up a few more people so it doesn't feel like we're rattling around a big table.

The price hasn't changed in years: 500 pesos a person, and that fee comes straight off any bottle you decide to take home. Most of what we pour runs between 350 and 650 pesos for a 500 ml bottle, so by the time people are deciding what to buy, the math tends to work out in their favor. Nobody's ever complained.

I'll admit I wince a little every time someone in town introduces me as a mezcal "expert." I've met the actual experts—the maestros and maestras who've given their lives to this, whose families have been doing it for generations, who know things about agave and fire and patience that I'll never fully catch up to. I just keep visiting them, keep drinking with them and keep learning from them. If that's earned me the label around town, fine. What I really want is the chance to pass along what they've taught me, one gorgeous sip at a time.

If a tasting sounds like your kind of evening—whether it's just you and a partner or a full group of friends—message me directly on WhatsApp at +1 (810) 610-3167. Come hungry, come curious, and leave whenever you're satisfied. Just know that around our table, nobody's counting the hour.

Jonathan Lockwood is a Mezcal lover, explorer, and collector and writes the Mezcal Maniac Substackmezcalmaniac.substack.com