Yo!

So, those of you that know us have probably at one point or four heard us wax on about how we approach mezcal like we do wine. You know, with a sense of place, community, respect for tradition and all of that other romantic stuff that makes us tick. You also probably know that we’re sorta control freaks. Biggie said it; if you don’t know, now you know. Yup. But what that really means is that we are constantly fretting about how we wrap ourselves around all of the details to get to the best damn thing possible to share with you, our friends in drink and in life.

So, it is with great pleasure, that today we are here to announce the arrival of our finest — heck, one of the world’s finest — mezcal to date.

It is not without a real tip of the hat to everyone that has helped us along the way, shared our journey, our passion and insanity, and helped Sombra to grow from our little home brew into an actual real and living thing! Without all of that collective energy nothing would have happened.

It is from here that we have taken a wonderful, head-long leap into the Sierra in search of an opportunity to refine our taste, dial-in the production, and do a little scrub-a-dub dance. (Remember the control freak part?) We literally stared at the map and bounced around the hills until we found our way to just about the highest point at this latitude, a spot called San Juan on the Rio Hormiga. It is actually the same river we were on before, just a ways upstream. (Side note: we are told it is never a bad thing in life to be upstream . . . ) Anyhow, somewhat counterintuitively, at least to us mountain dwellers, this higher elevation also brings great warmth, increased exposure to the sun and consequently greater ripeness in the agave at harvest. Another interesting twist is that mesquite is much less common up here so the roast is now done entirely with oak. We’ve also been able to tweak the post-roast rest, gotten away from the ubiquitous plastic and are using all stainless steel storage (this matters, at least to us, and we care for you). Without laboring on about all of the little tweaks and obsessions, we do think the result of all of this work is a prettier, richer, more interesting Sombra. It is one that puts forth ever more exotic fruit qualities, retains the peppery spice and allows the smoke to play the bass without drowning out the band. Ultimately we believe that Sombra stands as one of the finest agave distillates from anywhere, period.

Those of you that loved Sombra before, we think you’ll join us with even greater enthusiasm for the refinements. If you have yet to avail your tastebuds, body, mind and soul of Sombra, now is your chance to behold enlightenment.

Practically speaking, our latest effort will soon be shipping pretty much everywhere and you’ll be able to identify the new bottling via the agave relief on the inside of the labels. Furthermore, we wanted to marry the ancient with the now so we’ve stuck a nifty lil QR code on the back. Shoot it with your phone and you’ll see the coolest video ever of a place we call home.

Wishing you many laughs and endless smiles.

Cheers,

Richard and Charles

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