A bright and refreshing Cuishe Mezcal.

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 Cuishe Mezcal is crafted from wild Cuishe agave that takes 9-12 years to fully mature. After the agave is finally ready to be harvested, it’s roasted for 4-5 days, open-air fermented with wild yeast and double-distilled in a copper-pot still by Maestro Mezcalero Rómulo. This feisty Mezcal is unaged and bottled at 96 proof. The flavor profile brings tomatillo, earthy and mineral notes, ginger, fresh hay, orange zest, and honey. It’s bright and refreshing, just like traditional Cuishe Mezcal should be.