Dictador 20 Year Old Solera System Rum

Dictador 20 Year Old Solera System Rum

In 1751, Severo Arango y Ferro arrived in Cartagena, a port city in northern Colombia. Ferro had been sent to Colombia from Spain, and was asked to establish and oversee commercial trading activities between Spain and its American colonies. Ferro proved himself to be an able and ruthless statesman and under his leadership, the city of Cartagena became a hub of economic activity and the most important port for the Spanish fleet in the Americas. Ferro's strength and power also earned him the nickname "Dictador." Dictador was partial to a variety of rums that were being distilled in the Caribbean at the time, many of which passed through Cartagena on their way to Spain. In 1913, over 150 years after Ferro initially arrived in Colombia, one of his descendants established Destileria Colombiana. Today, the distillery honors the legacy of its founding ancestors with Dictador Rum. Dictador 20 Year Old Colombian Rum is made from the virgin nectar of raw sugar canes. Once the nectar has been fermented, it is distilled through a combination of copper-pot stills and stainless steel column stills. The wash distilled through the column stills produces a rum that is light in flavor and body, while the copper-pot stills produce a rum that is more intense and robust. Following distillation, the rum is solera-aged in traditional oak casks from Xrex. Solera aging is a process that has generally been reserved for aging cognacs, ports and sherries. It involves filling a series of casks at different intervals over a long period of time. As rum from the oldest cask is emptied and bottled, the cask is re-filled with an equivalent amount of rum from the second-oldest cask in the solera. This cascading effect continues until the youngest cask in the solera is filled with new rum. As a result, no cask in the solera is ever fully emptied. In addition, as the younger rum cascades through the solera, its average age and complexity gradually increases over time. Dictador 20 Year Old Colombian Rum has matured for over two decades in a solera, giving the rum a layered, complex flavor profile. The rum has an aroma of caramel, vanilla and honey, which gives way to notes of roasted coffee, honeyed oak and smooth tobacco on the palate. The finish is round and elegant, with layers of dark chocolate, mellow leather and light smoke. The rum earned the Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2012 and the Gold Medal at the Rum XP Awards in 2010.