We received a beautiful bottle of award-winning Santa Teresa 1796 in the mail recently and have really enjoyed learning about the brand, the rum and the history of Santa Teresa. Santa Teresa 1796 is, in our opinion, an excellent sipper, but also works very well in cocktails such as the Santa Teresa Spicy Mango Daiquiri, which don’t overpower the taste of the delicious rum .
This is a sponsored post with Santa Teresa Rum although all opinions expressed in this post are based on our personal experience with Santa Teresa 1796.
Enjoyed neat, you may taste notes of dark chocolate, wood, nuts, cinnamon and molasses. The pleasantly dry flavor palate will please scotch and whiskey drinkers venturing into the world of rum.
We had the opportunity to interview Marlo Gomora, brand ambassador for Santa Teresa 1796. Marlo provided a wealth of information on the brand, the history and this delicious rum as well as his thoughts on why dark rum is leading the game as an emerging spirit.
HISTORY
The story of Santa Teresa, the oldest Venezuelan producer of blended and aged rums, began 225 years ago at The Hacienda Santa Teresa in Venezuela’s Aragua Valley. The brand has a long and rich history of enduring war, land invasions and other turmoil, yet it continues to thrive.
The Hacienda Santa Teresa is an independent, family-owned company. After surviving the war, Gustav and Panchita Vollmer took over the Hacienda and dedicated their lives to rebuilding the lands and continuing their family legacy. The Vollmer family has been distilling sugar cane and bottling rum at the Hacienda ever since, improving its recipes and passing down tried and true techniques.
SANTA TERESA 1796
In 1996, to commemorate the Hacienda’s bicentennial, Alberto Vollmer Herrera challenged the company to develop a rum that could leverage all of the rum making mastery and craftsmanship learned in the first 200 years. With the help of Master Distiller Néstor Alfonso Ortega Sotero, who has been with the brand for 40 years, Santa Teresa 1796 was born.
Everything used to make Santa Teresa 1796 – from the sugar cane to the water – is sourced from the brand’s estate and local farms in the valley. This terroir provides the perfect environmental conditions for aging rum, from its rich soil to its temperate climate. From fermentation through distillation, aging and blending, it all happens at the Hacienda.
SOLERA METHOD
According to Marlo, Santa Teresa is the first super-premium rum to use the Solera method, a Spanish method of maturation commonly used with sherry and wine. In a nutshell, the Solera method consists of a tier of casks. The lowest casks contain the the most mature liquid – in this case rum, and the highest casks contain the least aged rum. When bottling, some of the rum is removed from the bottom cask and the space created by this process is filled with liquid from the level above. The purpose of this labor-intensive process is the maintenance of a reliable style, consistency and quality of the Santa Teresa 1796. The young rum is influenced by the older rum in the barrel into which it has been placed.
To create the smooth, dry rum, a complex blend of light , heavy and pot still rums aged between 4 to 35 years in bourbon barrels are processed in the Solera to create Santa Teresa 1796.
WHERE CAN I GET IT?
Where can you purchase Santa Teresa 1796? It is available in select retail stores nationwide (we spotted it in our local Total Wine store), and it is also available to purchase online. Check out the online purchase options here.
AWARDS
2021 Gold Medal – London Spirits Competition
2020 Silver Medal – London Spirits Competition
2020 Gold Medal – San Francisco Spirits Competition
95-point rating at the 2020 Ultimate Spirits Competition (certified as ‘Extraordinary, Ultimate Recommendation’)
RUM AS AN EMERGING SPIRIT
So why does Marlo believe dark rum is leading the premium game as an emerging spirit? In his words, “Across spirits categories, people are looking for ways to elevate the drinking occasion. The premiumization trend first impacted categories such as tequila and whisky, with rum long besieged by a reputation as a spirit best relegated to simple and overly sweet beach cocktails. The truth is that rum has always had craftsmanship and provenance that equaled other aged, old-world spirits like Single Malt Whisky or Cognac – people just weren’t aware of it.
A new generation of drinkers are searching for super-premium experiences, eager to explore innovative and luxury spirits in categories they aren’t as familiar with. As a result, they’ve discovered the subtlety and complexity of super-premium dark rums like Santa Teresa 1796, which has a flavor palette more akin to scotch and whisky than the typical rum.
FOLLOW SANTA TERESA RUM HERE
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PROJECT ALCATRAZ
To read more about Santa Teresa’s social transformation initiative called Project Alcatraz, click here.
