SANTA TERESA 1796 Venezuela Solera Rum, 40% ABV, 70cL / 700mL

Product Information

Crafted withwhisky aficionados in mind, Santa Teresa 1796 Speyside Cask Finish delivers a familiar yet enticingly distinct flavor profile compared to our flagship rum, featuring a sweet yet smoky aroma and flavor profile for an enticing yet familiar sipping occasion. The sherry intended for bottling is drawn from the lowest tier. In theory, this is about a quarter to a third of the barrel contents at any one time. Each producer, however, is free to manage the solera as they choose.

Santa Teresa is the first rum producer in Venezuela, originating from the valley of Aragua, its story started as a sugar cane plantation in 1796 and remains to this day as a family-owned business. Santa Teresa rums have been produced at Hacienda Santa Teresa for more than two centuries and are now present in more than 40 countries. Registered in 1909, the Santa Teresa brand boasts the title of Venezuela's very first rum trademark – as well as proudly carrying the "Ron de Venezuela" (Rum of Venezuela) DOC label.In the case of Santa Teresa 1796, each bottle is a blend of rums ranging in age from 35 years to 5 years. The older rums, however, are only a small proportion of the overall blend. Registered in 1909, the Santa Teresa brand boasts the title of Venezuela’s very first rum trademark – as well as proudly carrying the “Ron de Venezuela” (Rum of Venezuela) DOC label. The color is a rich, dark amber with a pronounced orange-brown hue. On the nose, there is a distinctive aroma of molasses and brown sugar that gives way to a caramel sweetness, along with hints of cooked apple, some coffee notes, a touch of banana and a bit of melon. The barrels were first filled in 1992, and since then the Solera casks have never been fully emptied. As with Sherry from Jerez, Spain, each time a bottle is drawn, the Solera is topped up with a slightly younger rum blend, meaning that each final bottle has a balance of the ‘Ron Madre’ or Mother Rum blended with the flavour profile of younger expressions. That’s not true for all countries, however. The definition of an age statement can vary significantly. In some places, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia the Dominican Republic, for example, the age statement can reflect the average age of the blend rather than its youngest component. That definition can bring the stated age statement more in line with the average age of a solera’s contents.

In the US, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), requires that the age statement on a bottle of spirits reflects the age of the youngest component of the blend. A 20 YO rum can consist of a blend of 20 YO and older rums, but it cannot contain rums that are younger than 20 YO even if it is just a fraction. The UK and the European Union have similar rules. Among rum producers, so do Jamaica and Barbados, among others.In Venezuela, [rum] takes two years [of aging] to be called a rum. But to make that super-premium rum, you need at least 15 years,” she says. “The blenders need just as long to develop the science and magic — to fully understand the raw materials that go into a bottle of rum, it takes a long time.” However, it’s not all toiling away to get there. “The maestro ronero spends their day playing and creating with those liquids to understand how they develop," Duarte says.