Most bottles are made to be sold. This one was made to be waited for.

What añejo means in mezcal

Joven mezcal is unaged — bottled soon after distillation, bright and full of smoke and agave. Reposado rests a few months. Añejo rests at least a year in oak, and the good ones far longer. Time in wood is not a finishing touch; it is a slow second act. The spirit trades with the barrel — pulling colour, vanilla, and tannin from the oak, softening its smoke, deepening into something rounder and quieter.

You cannot rush it, and you cannot fake it. An añejo is, by definition, a bet placed years ago.

Our bet: November 2022

When we bottled the 2022 Día de los Muertos joven — the batch made the year Oaxaca welcomed its dead home again — we held a portion back. In November 2022, that spirit went into oak, and there it has stayed ever since, resting in the cool air of Oaxaca.

It has never been for sale, because it has never been finished. Every month in the barrel changes it. Espadín's smoke folds into oak and dried fruit; the edges round off; the colour deepens. What began as the same mezcal as our joven is becoming something entirely its own — an Añejo 5 Años.

Why we hold it in reserve

There is no way to release an aging spirit "on demand." The barrel keeps its own schedule. So the añejo sits at the top of our reserve — the one Chulele you genuinely cannot taste yet, no matter who you are.

When it is ready, it will release once: a single window, by invitation, to the people on the reserve list. Not the fastest cart. The ones who were paying attention.

Wait for it

If a five-year, barrel-aged, single-batch mezcal from a Día de los Muertos harvest sounds like something you'd want to hold — read the story of the cask, then join the reserve list. When the barrel is ready, you'll be among the first to know.

Some things are worth the wait. This is one of them.

Chulele Añejo — Día de los Muertos 2022 · 100% Espadín · aging in oak, Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca.