Distilled by Candido Garcia Cruz, who prefers to produce using quiotudo agaves, this Espadin comes to us via NETA. This batch yielded 900 liters, distilled twice on copper after oven roasting and fermentation in cyprus wood tanks with wild yeasts. This is my first brush with NETA, and I'm excited after having to pass on bottles on a recent (albeit pre-covid)trip to NYC due to suitcase constraints. Stock image. Let's get to it.
Lots going on here - notably, strong agave note, lots of pineapple, minerality, almost a smoked meat note. The funk is clean and well integrated, though. Hint of cedar. Rich sweetness. This sort of reminds me of all the best parts of grilling season, especially if there is pineapple and red bell pepper on the grill.
Rich on the palate as well. Smoked salt, sweet honey and roasted agave. Faint faint red bell pepper with pepper and minerality. Really quite rich for an espadin. Pineapple note persists, making me sort of feel like this is the super upgrade to Rayu (similar profiles)
Long and much more powerful here - brash wood smoke, some cedar, pepper and a bit of heat, especially on the back of the throat. Those soft pineapple notes are gone, replaced with quite a lot of bold wood, mineral and smoke notes. What’s nice to see here is that the transition is pretty tightly integrated, though it’s a roller coaster ride.
This is really quite nice. This is my first brush with Neta, but based on my notes and my comparison to it being a Rayu+, it should be no surprise as to why I like it.
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