When did you discover Mexican rums?
In 2021, when Swell de Spirits was created, my friends and associates Bruno Sarabia and Darian Penichet and I started a company in Mexico to source Mexican spirits such as mezcal, tequila, gin and rum. It turns out that Bruno is Mexican and his nephew, who lives in Guadalajara, knew Pedro Andrés and Jorge Nájera, who founded the Satvrnale distillery located in the state of Jalisco, 45 minutes away. The team and I fell in love with their molasses rum.
So they produce molasses rum?
Yes, from local molasses, but we are currently working on producing pure cane juice. They have a pot still with a rectification column. After talking with them, we decided that, for the European market, we would start producing Mexican high-ester rums.
How did this work on high esters go?
At the end of 2021, we set up a muck pit, then worked on the dunder with cane acid… but everything that doesn’t fall under our little manufacturing secrets is marked on the label of our first vintage. It is therefore a high ester rum made from local molasses, which underwent double distillation in a pot still after three weeks of fermentation in a wooden vat, then left to rest for more than six months in demijohns.
Read also: Focus Terroir – Mexico, the new frontier for rum?