What to drink when you’re not drinking mezcal? In the first of a two part series, we turn to wine industry friends for recommendations.
When did you notice that your taste was becoming progressively rarefied? Enjoying any mezcal requires an appreciation for a potent sensory experience. So you probably started out with a reasonably adventurous palate. But as you sipped and sampled, did you find yourself developing an appreciation for flavor combinations that might be considered bizarre? I mean, we toss around phrases “barnyard funk” about liquor we pay good money to drink.
The upside to an evolving palate are manifold, but the downsides can be seriously inconvenient. You end up spending a lot of money and/or time tracking down obscure expressions. You alienate your friends by mistakenly thinking that a bottle of raicilla–which tastes fruity and friendly to you–is a viable entry level agave spirit. Increasingly, other forms of alcohol seem insipid to you.
This last factor is a problem because obscure mezcal is not perfect for every occasion. So what do you drink when you’re not drinking mezcal? What bottle do you bring when liquor is not an appropriate offering? For me, it’s always wine. But my palate has ruined my appreciation for a lot of the wines I used to enjoy–cheap, friendly Malbecs and garden variety Pinot Gris.
Yes, I sound like an awful snob. When it comes to alcohol, I am. If I’m going to drink something that’s trying to kill me, I at least want to enjoy it. Which brings me to today’s topic. In my search for wines that would satisfy my taste for challenging flavors, I turned to my wine industry friends for recommendations.
First up is Rachel Mercer, a snarky culinary savant with a particular talent for interesting flavor combinations. Rachel has been one of my go-to “consultants” since my long-ago days as a food writer for Salon. She once sent me a box of sheep hearts for a column I was writing on budget cooking. (At the time she was raising sheep to make amazing ice cream with surprising flavors like beet.)
Rachel is from a Washington farming and wine family (her parents planted the first grapes in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA) and has worked in the industry for virtually her entire life. She began managing tasting rooms in 2005. She holds a WSET level 3 Award in Wines and Spirits and now works in management and as a chef for Wautoma Springs, an excellent boutique winery that operates in Washington’s Columbia Valley AVA. (They make one of my favorite cabs of all time.)
Rachel isn’t a “mezcal person,” so in the interests of this article she wanted to explore the flavor profiles of different agaves before making recommendations. I suggested she try Rey Campero. After tasting the full line-up she wrote: “I included my notes if you want to have a laugh since I’m really not familiar with mezcal tasting notes and just wrote down anything that came to mind.”
She’s selling herself short. She includes descriptors I don’t often run into in mezcal, but her tasting notes are insightful and evocative, demonstrating that a good palate works across mediums. She observes that the Rey Campero Mexicano has a sweet, almost floral nose and tastes white tea, sage, agarwood, and calamansi lime, with “an almost salty finish.” In the cuish she notes palo santo, hay, thyme, and shiso vanilla. She also included a “song pairing” for each expression–this is related to how she hosts wine tastings, creating a playlist that she feels works with the wine they’re presenting that day. (In case you are wondering, Rey Campero cuishe evidently pairs well with Texas, 1947 by Guy Clark.)
When I ask her about this, she says that she views tastings not just as drinking but as a cultural experience. “I think that’s a way we should always think about consuming alcohol,” she says.
This ties into one of her first questions when she sets out to make wine recommendations. “How are they wanting to enjoy the wine? Is this just a standard bottle to have and try? Is this for a dinner party they’re throwing? Is it for a date night? Wine is so tied to cultural activities to me, that this is maybe the most important part of which wine to recommend.”
Another factor, of course, is the style of wine any given person typically enjoys. After tasting the mezcals, she guessed that most regular mezcal drinkers would probably gravitate toward wines that were “weird” and “interesting.”
These descriptors fit perfectly with a couple of wines she doesn’t actually like herself, such as orange wine, a style she describes as extremely interesting but prone to flaws.
“It’s not about what I like, it’s what you may like,” she says, noting that it’s an old and interesting style, that it’s harder to find, unusual, and often made with wild yeasts–all qualities that could appeal to mezcal aficionados, particularly those of us who are interested in the cultures of production.
Another thought is aged Riesling. She describes her first experience of drinking an aged Riesling (a 40-year-old bottle from Germany). She was surprised by how much she liked it because she typically doesn’t gravitate toward aged expressions (a sentiment that resonates with my own strong preference for unaged agave spirits.)
“Old wine tastes like old wine to me – the flavors are different, they tend to be ‘smoother’ – but I like that punch of acid and fresh fruit in younger wine,” she says.
The Riesling was an exception to the rule that “balanced the nuance of the tertiary flavors with a freshness that retained 40 years later.”
Then in 2016 she got to try a 1968 aged dry Riesling from Australia.
“I figured it’d be fine, good, but not amazing,” she explains. “I was wrong. It had those cool herbal notes along with great acidity still, after all those years and the nose ranged from herbal to honey and waxy and dried apricot.”
Which brings her to her recommendations of wines for mezcal drinkers:
Australian aged dry Riesling: A good aged Riesling should be more earthy (mushroom/piney/woodsy) than petrol and those qualities seem appropriate for mezcal drinkers. But I would look for dry or, at most, off-dry versions of Riesling. Riesling has such beautiful acidity it can be a little sweet (off-dry) and still TASTE very dry. However, getting some age on those bottles is when all those super cool elements start to come forward. I did a quick look online and found some very reasonable prices for vintages of dry Australian Rieslings (from like 2020 or so), which would be a great way for someone to dip their toe into slightly aged dry Riesling--Rachel Mercer (RM)
South African Pinotage – Pinotage is a red grape variety, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut. It’s from South Africa, though it’s also grown in other places now. Smokiness is a key characteristic of a lot of South African Pinotages. It can be one of those weird red wines that sometimes smells like a white wine with tropical fruit aromas. It’s a variety that usually has some VA, or volatile acidity. Wines that have noticeable VA smell like anything from vinegar to nail polish remover. It’s something winemakers typically avoid in their wine. However, if you’re really into mezcals I could see a little VA being familiar and appealing in wine. Pinotage is a pretty good food wine, pretty fun. And usually fairly affordable, although less so with tariffs, et al. My recommendation if you can find it: Southern Right Pinotage, $29 USD–RM
Retsina from Greece– DISCLAIMER: I don’t like this wine. It’s usually poorly made white wine with pine resin added. I haven’t had one I liked, but I have found it interesting (I mean, who thought of this?!). That said, I’ve heard from many people who have visited Greece that modern retsina are quite nice–they don’t taste like pine sol anymore. These wines have green apple and herbal notes, which reminds me of mezcal, and sometimes tinges of turpentine. The latter may sound awful, but the combination might be up your alley if you like mezcal. Retsina also happens to be incredibly affordable. You can easily find bottles for $7 US, but may want to find a reputable wine shop to ask for recommendations (or for that price, just try a few bottles and see if they hit.)-RM
While these were the first wines that sprang to mind, Rachel (like any loyal Northwestern wine person) also wanted to include some local (to her) options, espousing the importance of supporting regional winemakers.
Washington State Grenache Blanc – Grenache Blanc is a widely grown grape in Spain and France, but very uncommon in the US. However, there are plantings in California and Washington, and we’re seeing a growing interest for this unusual grape. What’s interesting about Grenache Blanc is that it’s high in alcohol. Traditionally, white wines, unless fortified, are lower in alcohol than their red counterparts. White wines are picked before brix develop too high, as the goal is to retain fresh fruit flavors and great natural acidity. Grenache Blanc, is picked when ripe and has a lot of sugar. The result–especially from WA state Grenache Blancs–are these super interesting medium bodied wines (thanks to the alcohol), coupled with fresh fruit and a shock of acidity on the palate. European Grenache blanc is also high alcohol, but usually lacking acid, and does some funky things like go super herbal with quick oxidation. Not so in WA, where Grenache Blanc has flavors like green melon, cucumber, fresh bright herbs (basil, parsley flowers). Because of the acidity, these wines seem to be aging fairly decently-RM
Washington State Chardonnay–I know. I’ve probably lost people on this one. For a long time the popular Chardonnay were the butter bombs from California. These are hard to find now. There’s some really cool things happening with this grape, including salty style chardonnay or super funky ones. Some wineries are making multiple styles of Chardonnays to showcase the diversity of the grape. It’s really a fun grape, but has a bad reputation. We see a lot of “ABC” drinkers–“anything but chardonnay.”
Chardonnay can be expensive, as the time, care and expensive oak that are put into it just like a red wine. But there’s also a lot of really good value-priced Chardonnays out there that have a hint of oak, great acidity, and a long list of descriptive notes. And WA state Chardonnays are a great place to start for these reasons. Chardonnay grows very well here, a lot of people make it, and a lot of us know the market is iffy on it–so we’re not charging what we should for the quality of wine we’re producing. We also tend to be in the middle style–mostly stainless steel fermentation, some oak aging and very little malolactic fermentation (butter notes). Common descriptors for these wines: vanilla, sweet oak, green apple, pear, lemon–which are all flavors I get from mezcal. Furthermore, Chardonnay is meant to be chilled, but not fridge cold; when served at this temperature it can have a similar body sensation as mezcal-RM
A general recommendation for finding the type of wines that are going to satisfy your palate:
Rachel likens mezcal to the cool kid of the spirits world: “The one that’s different, aloof and that you desperately want to hang out with and impress.” She sees parallels in the wine realm. “There are a lot of really cool, small production winemakers out there that fit this category as well,” she says. She describes these niche winemakers as “incredibly passionate about their craft,” and highlights the artistry and creative freedom at play.
“Sometimes it’s a second (or third) career for them–throwing away their world in finance, law, policing (really), and embracing the artistic side they always had, feeling the freedom to let their freak flag fly a little bit,” she says. “Or it’s someone’s first career–they studied wine, they interned, they found their own spot to make it themselves.” Either way, these people are doing it because they love it. Like good mezcal, good wine is a labor of love–not a cash cow.
“The wine economy SUCKS, in case you’re not aware,” Rachel observes. “And what’s frustrating is that there is a lot of shitty bulk wine out there. There’s also a lot of really good bulk wine out there. But bulk wine is bulk wine, and the character, storytelling and passion that can be found in mezcal lacks in these bigger production wineries/labels.”
If you’re a true fan of mezcal, you’re already used to going the extra mile to find it, so Rachel’s general advice should ring true.
“I’d invite mezcal fans to go find a local winery to support,” she says. “There’s one around you. There are wineries in all 50 states. Go on an adventure and learn about someone’s craft. And let’s support these unique stories in the wine and spirits world.”
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