Illegal Mezcal Reposado
£63.95
Caramelized pear and bitter orange on the nose. Clove, butterscotch, and hints of vanilla on the palate. Each lot of Ilegal Mezcal Reposado is aged to taste for 6 months, using a combination of new and used American oak, medium char barrels.
Named Best Reposado for 2023 by Esquire and awarded Gold Medals at both the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the Tequila.net Awards.
Around 2004, Ilegal's founder John Rexer began bringing mezcal down from Oaxaca to Antigua to supply his bar, Café No Sé. The mezcal became popular very quickly. At the time, he was bringing down unbranded mezcal from a variety of villages in Oaxaca. In 2006, John created the brand Ilegal, originally just to supply his bar in Guatemala. Today the fourth generation mezcaleros who craft Ilegal use only perfectly ripe Espadín agave, double distilled in Oaxaca, Mexico. Agave is roasted in earthen pits lined with river stones. The roasting process takes 5-7 days. The fire is built using Encino, a native Oak. Because deforestation is a problem in the Oaxacan Region, all the wood the team use is from certified sustainable wood farmers. The agave is hand cut and crushed using a Tahona. The mash is then moved to pine vats for natural fermentation for 7-10 days and distilled twice after.
All Ilegal Mezcal bottles are made with 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) glass that would otherwise remain in landfills.