Santa Teresa Bicentenario

[Fabio]

I was lucky this year to obtain some bottles of Santa Teresa most aged rum: Bicentenario. This is not a commercial rum and production is limited to 1000 bottles per year. They claim this is a blend of very old rums (up to 80 y.o.) and then the blend is aged during 15 years. I have tasted and is excellent. Color is particular: quite dark (more brown than yellow) with body. For those that know Venezuelan rums I could describe Santa Teresa Bicentenario something between Cacique Antiguo (strong) and Diplomatico (sweety). I tasted while cooking (bad idea because place was quite hot) but will taste again and will try to describe it much better. I forgot to mention something: even though Bicentenario is great the bottle and presentation is not at the level of the content. I really love this Rum but I believe that this should be a holistic experience and when talking about aged and dark rums I believe most of the people expects a nice and distinctive bottle. One I love is Pampro Aniversario that came in a leather sac but Santa Teresa Bicentenario is a very simple bottle (maybe because it is not a commercial execution). Anyway I like it a lot.

[Edward Hamilton]

I'm leaving tomorrow for Venezuela and the Santa Teresa distillery and will certainly look forward to trying some of the Bicentenario, if there is any left.

I appreciate that many connoisseurs expect, or even demand, that special spirits come in special bottles. For myself, I would much rather have a good spirit than a fancy bottle. I much prefer to collect fine spirits instead of fancy bottles.

Along those lines some of the best spirits I've tasted came in what Madison Ave marketers would call bland and boring. On the other hand, truly small production products don't need fancy bottles to sell them as the quantity available is small and fancy bottles in small quantities cost a lot of money. The question that always comes to my mind is whether the distiller is trying to sell this particular bottle or are they trying to raise the awareness of their brand and sell me their other products which are in mass supply?

[Fabio]

Edward,
I agree with you regarding the fact that small production + fancy bottle might be expensive. In fact, I waited 2 years to get this product just becasue it is distributed among a reduced database of people.

I am glad you are coming to Caracas. I need to program a visit Santa Teresa distillery in El Consejo.

I have attached a pic of the Bicentenario...hope you can taste it.

Best regards, Fabio.

[angelsword]

How much bribery and/or trade will it take to get me a bottle of this?

[Hank Koestner]

I'm with Angelsword................

[Count Silvio]

Is it really worth the price? I can only imagine how costly it is. Would be awesome to get to review that one.

[timwill]

My wife is Venezuelan and thus we have family in the country and as a long-time afficiado of rum my Venezuelan connection has allowed me the pleasure over the past 40 years of tasting some of the finest rum in the world. I'll put the best Ron Venezolano against any in the world. We will Just got back from 4 weeks there and tasted (again) the Santa Teresa A.J. Vollmer Bicentenario, Carupano Legendario, and for the first time the Diplomatico 1997 Single Vintage. All are extraordinary, like the finest old cognac, easily among the best in the world, though somewhat different amongst one another. I'll write a more detailed review on all of them later. The advantage for me is that I buy them when I depart for home at the duty-free in the Maiquetia (Caracas) airport with bolivares that I obtain at the 'black-market' exchange rate (17.5 BsF/$ rather than the official rate of 4.3, thus making things 4x cheaper) from Venezuelan acquaintances. This illegal black market in bolivares is so widespread it's disgusting (they approach any foreigner at the airport wanting to know if you want to sell dollars or euros, though usually at a lower rate), but be careful and exchange with only someone you know. That being said the Bicentenario at the airport is ~1760 BsF (~$100), the Legendario ~2400 BsF (~140.) and the Diplomatico 690 BsF (~40.). At those rates they are steals, at the regular rate 4x higher not so much. Best buy of all though is the Cacique Antiguo at 260 BsF ($15.) which is still one of my favorites among all rums. Bad part of all of this though is that you can only get these in Venezuela, no exports that I know of.

[Fabio]

[QUOTE=timwill;49848]My wife is Venezuelan and thus we have family in the country and as a long-time afficiado of rum my Venezuelan connection has allowed me the pleasure over the past 40 years of tasting some of the finest rum in the world. I'll put the best Ron Venezolano against any in the world. We will Just got back from 4 weeks there and tasted (again) the Santa Teresa A.J. Vollmer Bicentenario, Carupano Legendario, and for the first time the Diplomatico 1997 Single Vintage. All are extraordinary, like the finest old cognac, easily among the best in the world, though somewhat different amongst one another. I'll write a more detailed review on all of them later. The advantage for me is that I buy them when I depart for home at the duty-free in the Maiquetia (Caracas) airport with bolivares that I obtain at the 'black-market' exchange rate (17.5 BsF/$ rather than the official rate of 4.3, thus making things 4x cheaper) from Venezuelan acquaintances. This illegal black market in bolivares is so widespread it's disgusting (they approach any foreigner at the airport wanting to know if you want to sell dollars or euros, though usually at a lower rate), but be careful and exchange with only someone you know. That being said the Bicentenario at the airport is ~1760 BsF (~$100), the Legendario ~2400 BsF (~140.) and the Diplomatico 690 BsF (~40.). At those rates they are steals, at the regular rate 4x higher not so much. Best buy of all though is the Cacique Antiguo at 260 BsF ($15.) which is still one of my favorites among all rums. Bad part of all of this though is that you can only get these in Venezuela, no exports that I know of.

The Diplomatico 1997 Single Vintage I saw it at the supermarket today and is 1100 BsF (174$ official exchange rate) and 42$ with the insane black market for us who live in Venezuela. There is a new one called ROBLE Ultra Aged and limited edition at the price of 317 BsF, extremelly cheap BTW.

[Thomas K]

Just heard from my venezuelan friends that the current exchange rate at the black market is U$1 for VEF 50,--!! If You´re unsure of how the duty free shop is stocked, www.licoresmundiales.com has some very fine rum on stock as well.

[stroi08]

I enjoyed reading the thread. There is not so many places to find information about the more rare Venezuelan rums.

Can anyone give an update on the rums in Caracas (Maiquetia) airport? I heard that Carupano Legendario is no longer available, but not sure if it's true.
I will be visiting soon and hope to come preparred