The great trip to Venezuela: when you discover Hacienda Santa Teresa

16 October 2023 | Discover
The great trip to Venezuela: when you discover Hacienda Santa Teresa

Part I: Exploring Hacienda Santa Teresa

Excellence Rhum is among the six Parisian wine merchants invited to Venezuela at Santa Teresa, along with brand representatives from Europe. The journey to the new world is long but worth it. We are greeted at Simon Bolivar International Airport by the distillery's service, which takes us to the Hacienda. It's a 1h15 drive. It's quite an uphill journey. We watch the landscape, the traffic, the houses, and the quite typical motorcycle helmets.

We arrive at the Hacienda in the early evening. Night falls. We enter through a small entrance that evening and follow the sugarcane fields, before seeing the first buildings, warehouses, stone constructions, a building that houses a distillation apparatus. A few meters away, we discover the Casa enveloped by the night.

Dans le corridor de la Casa
In the corridor of the Casa
A ladybug, then behind the building housing a still
A cox car, then behind the building housing a still
The dining room that opens onto the patio
The dining room that opens onto the patio

This beautiful 19th century construction is typical of plantation architecture. The hall, called the Corridor, is furnished with leather armchairs. The living room, dominated by yellow and light green colors, contains a magnificent French billiard table. Lamps placed on precious wood furniture mark the room. Following the living room is the dining room. Painted in the late 19th century, it features Asian-type marine motifs. We go to the patio which the dining room opens onto, to go to our rooms. Twelve settings are laid out for the dinner during which we will discuss, including with Alberto Vollmer, the director of the Hacienda, about the stay beginning this Monday, October 2, 2023.

The next day we discuss what is called the Hacienda, which is equivalent to the plantation in the West Indies. It includes the lands and buildings. It's very extensive. One does not easily walk from one point to another. Via a long road lined with sunlit palm trees, we are transported across the property.

The Distillery

The distillery is immense. It receives a mash that has undergone double fermentation. The first is a continuous fermentation and the second is a batch fermentation. This results in a cane molasses wine between 8 and 10%. We tasted the first distilled juices under the watchful eyes of the distillation columns.

The central aisle of Hacienda Santa Teresa
The central aisle of Hacienda Santa Teresa
The distillation columns of Santa Teresa
The distillation columns of Santa Teresa
The landscapes of Hacienda Santa Teresa
The landscapes of Hacienda Santa Teresa

The first column distills a 70% heavy alcohol at the column's output. This juice contains the fruity aromas of Santa Teresa. The following columns lighten the product up to a distillation at 95%, the famous light rum. Finally, the last juice we tasted comes from the pot-still located near the Casa. It is relatively sweet, very fruity, and acidic. This acidity comes from the second fermentation, we learn. The columns produce 60,000 liters of alcohol per day and the still only 500 liters.

The Cellars

We arrive in the cellars, these places both austere and generous. 90,000 is approximately the number of barrels spread across several warehouses. We first enter the cellar where a first static aging takes place. The previously mentioned distilled rums are aged separately. The base for Santa Teresa 1796 is a rather young light rum, a second light rum aged for 25 years, a aged heavy alcohol from the first column, then the rum from the Pot Still, meaning another heavy alcohol.

We notably tasted this 25-year-old light rum, cask strength. It offers a lot of dried fruits and has a certain sweetness. The first heavy alcohol on the other hand is fruity, woody, powerful. It gives body to Santa Teresa. Finally, the old rum distilled in a pot still almost reminds one of a Jamaican rum with its sour pineapple taste.

Tasting rums in the cellars
Tasting rums in the cellars

We then move to a solaris cellar. At this stage, the blending of the various aged rums has been completed. Barrels are distributed over four floors. Each floor corresponds to a different age. The barrels are always at least half full and have been since 1992, which is the beginning of the development of the production method for Santa Teresa 1796 rum. It entered the market in 1996. The barrels are filled by hand. The solera method involves emptying the barrels by half, starting from the bottom, and refilling them with rum from barrels located on the upper floors. The higher barrels, also half emptied, receive the blend resulting from static aging.

The rum drawn from the lower floor is placed in a huge vat at the back of the cellar for a final rest. It has never been completely emptied since 1996. From the wisdom of this vat comes the Ron Santa Teresa 1796 containing rums up to 35 years old.

Nestor Ortega, Cellar Master
Nestor Ortega, Cellar Master
A Solera cellar of Santa Teresa
A Solera cellar of Santa Teresa
Nancy Duarte, Master Distiller, Cellar Master
Nancy Duarte, Master Distiller, Cellar Master

A Tasting Evening

In the evening, in another cellar, a beautiful, gleaming table was set up for us to taste a number of products and attend a cocktail demonstration. Let's just say right away, we tasted products in preparation, and we must keep them confidential. We will only say that they fit perfectly both in the Venezuelan terroir and in Santa Teresa's premiumization strategy, which is now entering a new phase. Nevertheless, we tasted two fine products that are coming to the market, namely the Santa Teresa Speyside Whisky Finish and the Bicentenario.

Santa Teresa Speyside Whisky finish

On the nose, we have notes of nuts, citrus, and rancio. On the palate, we find silky, vanilla, dried fruit, and toffee notes. At 46% ABV, this rum is truly elegant. The finish of this Santa Teresa 1796, in ex-Speyside casks lasted 13 months, which slightly challenges our European notion of finishing, traditionally limited to 12 months. Beyond that, we talk about additional aging. This rum is of very fine craftsmanship, refined and elegant, and contributes to the evolution of Latin rums, which have been taking place for two years in the European market.

Santa Teresa Bicentenario

We are clearly entering another temporal dimension with this edition that contains rum over 80 years old... This rum has been aged in barrels made from wood from the Black Forest in Germany, imported to the Hacienda in 1926 for the birth of the current leader's father, Alberto Vollmer. These barrels are kept in an old chapel and are nicknamed "chapel rum". Alongside these legendary rums, rums aged 15 to 25 years have been blended for this cuvée. Here we have a complex, rich, silky rum with notes of leather, tobacco, cocoa, cherry, dried fruit. This is truly a remarkable cuvée that should be released next year.

A Premiumization Strategy

For years, ambassadors of Latin rums in France have been tracking European market trends where a premium segment with demanding enthusiasts who expect rare and surprising products is emerging. The Ron Santa Teresa 1796 was already an initial step in this upscale strategy. The establishment of the Declaration of Origin for Venezuelan Ron in 2003, which became Controlled Declaration of Origin in 2019, marked a global intention of Venezuelan rums to improve their production processes. The future releases we just mentioned are a new realization at Santa Teresa of this strategy developed several years ago. The two preferred foreign markets by Santa Teresa for premium rums are now the United States and France.

Tasting Evening at the Hacienda
Tasting Evening at the Hacienda
Santa Teresa 1796, Speyside finish
Santa Teresa 1796, Speyside finish
Tasting Santa Teresa in front of one of the solera cellars
Tasting Santa Teresa in front of one of the solera cellars

Hacienda Santa Teresa is now both the rum production site and the showcase of the brand. The Hacienda welcomes visitors, tourists, but Santa Teresa is not only involved in the rum industry today. For 20 years, the brand, through a foundation, has been deeply involved in breaking the criminal cycle of former gang members. Check out the next article!

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Discover all rums of Santa Teresa

Written by

Matthieu Lange ExcellenceRhum
Matthieu Lange
Spirits Advisor