vinepair: The 20 Best Mezcals for 2025

In many ways, moving from tequila into the expansive world of mezcal is like developing a taste for Scotch following a fascination with bourbon. Each duo shares the same parent category (agave spirits and whiskey, respectively), employs similar production techniques, and will often be found close to each other, if not side by side, in liquor stores.

Of course, there are limits to this analogy, and the aim is not to frame mezcal or Scotch as superior to their siblings. But there’s also no denying that the regional diversity within these two categories and, yes, the occasional presence of smoke, place them among the world’s most complex spirits — distillates that aficionados would often much rather enjoy neat rather than in cocktails.

Whether the destination for mezcal is a copita or coupe by way of cocktail shaker is ultimately the buyer’s decision. Either way, quality and value for money are of paramount importance, and those can be tricky things to decipher from bottle labels or even brand websites alone. So we’ve done the hard work for you, tasting through dozens of expressions, and digging into individual production details to offer this list of the 20 best mezcals to drink in 2025.

The Best Mezcals Over $100

Palenqueros Madrecuishe Valente Garcia

Another hands-on, small-batch expression, the roasted Madrecuishe agave for this 933-bottle release was crushed by mallet before being double-distilled in copper pots. Bottled at 48.9 percent ABV, it offers a bright, minerally wet rock nose, with hints of citrus and savory smoke. The palate that follows is layered with sweetness and roasted nut notes.

Average price: $104
Rating: 94

Cinco Sentidos Arroqueño Tío Pedro

A stunning and considerable labor of love, Tío Pedro Hernandez produced this batch in Santa Catarina Minas using traditional clay pots. Before he could do so, he first had to source the Arroqueño agave from over 50 miles away, in the verdant hills of Sola de Vega. After roasting for more than five days, he (along with some help from friends) mashed the agave by hand using mazos. All that effort truly paid off: The nose darts between ripe tropical fruit, yogurt, and root vegetables. The palate is at once sweet and minerally, the wet rock notes eventually leading to pleasant, dialed-down smoke, and a finish that drinks well below its almost 50 percent ABV.

Average price: $136
Rating: 95

NETA Espadin-Bicuixe Heriberto García Sánchez

Combining a 60/40 blend of wild Bicuixe and homegrown Espadín, this double-distilled ensamble flips a common mezcal experience on its head, beginning with savory, almost meaty aromas, and following with expressive green fruit and chalky minerality on the palate. With more time in glass, the aromas and flavors meld into one, just as other complex notes emerge, ensuring the drinking experience is ever evolving and endlessly enjoyable.

Average price: $149
Rating: 94

PUNCH: Don’t Know Where to Start With Mezcal? Here Are 10 Producers to Know.

In a category facing increased industrialization, these brands are fighting to preserve regional traditions.

In 2023, more than 400 brands of mezcal were exported from Mexico. That doesn’t include the increasing number of producers who are choosing not to certify their spirits, often labeling them “destilados de agave” (“distillates of agave”) instead. With so many options entering the market, figuring out which producers to seek out in order to support economic, environmental and social justice in a category facing increased industrialization (and the troublesome issues that come with it) can feel like an impossible task. 

To help, we’ve compiled a list of brands that are setting a strong example of best practices for others to follow. Many of them are producer-owned, while others source from a variety of producers but have initiatives in place to encourage positive environmental and economic practices and the preservation of regional customs. There are, of course, plenty of other great producers making incredible mezcal in this vein, but consider this list—most of which are widely available across the United States—a strong starting point.

Cinco Sentidos

What started as the house mezcal for El Destilado restaurant in Oaxaca City evolved into an export brand in 2017. Owner Jason Cox has cultivated long-standing relationships with a core lineup of producers in Oaxaca and Puebla during his time living in Mexico. With Cinco Sentidos, he pays above market price for batches and does not pressure producers to meet certain volume demands; it is entirely up to the producers how much they choose to make and sell. Cox also implemented a 10 percent profit-sharing program to help producers invest in everything from basic personal needs to land and distillery infrastructure.

Navazos Palazzi Malt Whiskey Cask Strength [Palo Cortado Single Cask] Review

The Whiskey Tribe review of Navazos Palazzi Malt Whiskey (Palo Cortado). Spanish malt finished in a unique and rare style of Sherry cask.

‘We Stand for Non-Bullsh*t Products’: Why Blended Whiskey Makers Are Openly Discussing Their Spirits

From Barrell Craft Spirits to Mic Drop, a new wave of NDP's talk eschewing "tradition" to make unique bourbons.

Joe Beatrice spends his day tasting whiskey, assessing the character of the contents of barrel after barrel throughout his multiple maturation warehouses. It’s one of his jobs, along with his two full-time blenders, to know the flavor profiles of the over 10,000 casks of bourbon and rye they own. But while this is standard work at a distillery, what’s different about Barrell Craft Spirits, the company Beatrice founded in 2013, is that it’s never distilled a drop.

Barrell is one of the most celebrated of the new wave of non-distilling producers, or NDPs. In and of themselves, NDPs are nothing new; if you drink American whiskey, you’ve probably enjoyed many of them over the years, perhaps without even knowing it. Bulleit, for example. Or Redemption Rye, Templeton or Angel’s Envy. The list goes on.

Historically, NDPs haven’t been eager to highlight the fact that they don’t make their own whiskey. Bourbon, it was believed, was all about tradition, so there was an incentive to invent a fanciful yarn to suggest authenticity. But Barrell tells you as much as it can about what’s in the bottle, which might include where the whiskey was purchased and how old it is. “There’s no fake backstory,” Beatrice says. “I didn’t come across the blending recipe in my grandfather’s trunk. I didn’t get it from a Conestoga wagon.” The company simply buys barrels of liquid distilled by others, then employs in-house expertise to blend them into something exciting and new. “The notion that it can only be good if you make it yourself is crazy,” Beatrice says.

Since 2007, a distillery called High West in Park City, Utah, has been quietly leading the way on the concept of honest sourcing. Master distiller Brendan Coyle ranks transparency at “the top of the values list of the company.” High West, along with other pioneers such as Smooth Ambler, distills its own whiskey but also sources it from others (largely from the massive MGP plant in Indiana), using blending and imagination to concoct something unique, such as A Midwinter Night’s Dram, a blend of two types of rye finished in French-oak port barrels and released every fall to eager drinkers and collectors. Coyle likens blending to art; this hybrid approach, he says, is akin to having more colors with which to paint.

From left to right: Barrell Bourbon, A Midwinter Nights Dram whiskey, Mic Drop. Barrell Craft Spirits/High West Distillery/Mic Drop

Wherever you look in the NDP market these days, you’ll see a new transparency that feels radical, whether it’s the hyper-limited Mic Drop—its website diligently recounts every minute decision that went into the bottle—or the enormous Bardstown Bourbon Company, which literally prints the pedigree of its purchased and blended Discovery series right on the label. Bardstown is sitting on thousands of its own distilled barrels, still too young to use, but Dan Callaway, the company’s VP of product development, says that even when its barrels come of age, Bardstown will continue to purchase whiskey for blending. “Discovery series is an opportunity to create something new and special,” he says. “Our story is our team. We want to show people the whole process.”

Nicolas Palazzi, creator of Mic Drop, puts it more plainly still: “We stand for non-bullshit products,” he says. “To be honest, it doesn’t sound very radical to me.”

Where There's Smoke: Mezcal is Booming in the Cocktail World

Food Network Magazine - May, 2021

Visit any serious cocktail bar or well-stocked liquor store and you'll likely encounter mezcal.

The smoky Mexican liquor, distilled from the roasted hearts of agave plants, has long been central to Oaxacan culture but has more recently become a stateside obsession: America imports more mezcal than any other country in the world, with sales having grown 77 percent since 2017, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. Mixologists have helped fuel the boom by creating new mezcal cocktails, although many fans also drink Mezcal the traditional way: at room temperature with salt and an orange slice.

Bottle To Try:

Cinco Sentidos, Papalometl Mezcal - The agave is fermented in rawhide, a local tradition.