Francis from Distillnation came round the other day to drop off some absinthe and he presented me also with a handsome bottle of Botran’s new Blanca Reserva. It doesn’t officially launch in the UK till later this year, but when it does it will retail for about £22.
Botran are a Guatemalan family firm who have been making rum since 1939. Originally sugar cane planters, they still make all their rum with virgin cane juice from their own family estate in Retalhuleu, in the south of the country, using their own strain of yeast taken from pineapple, before ageing it slowly in the cool mountain town of Quetzaltenango. They use a mixture of bourbon (sometimes re-charred), sherry and port barrels and practise a “solera” system, more usually found in sherry production, where rums of different ages are constantly blended. To get an idea of just how elaborate this is, have a look at the flow chart below. Their current range consists of the Reserva, containing rums aged 5–14 years, and the Solera 1893, a drier, more profound blend of rums aged 5–18 years.
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| Click on the image to see a larger version |
Straightaway I can tell you that this Blanca makes a cracking Daiquiri,* with the rum coming through as tight and fruity, with a petrolly spirit thrust that pokes through the lime and sugar, yet bonds smoothly and perfectly with those flavours too. I try a Mary Pickford,** and again the rum lends an elegant power to this frothy, fruity number.
Neat, the Reserva Blanca has a juicy nose with elements of marzipan and cherry Bakewell. The palate is very soft and smooth for a white rum, and maintains the marzipan flavours. I have bottles of Bacardi and Havana Club 3-year-old to hand so I try them alongside: the Bacardi has a dry, sour nose by comparison, whereas the Botran is mellow and inviting with hints of chocolate. Likewise the Bacardi is thin and sharp on the palate, with a hint of blue cheese and seemingly a bit watery (though it is 37.5% ABV compared to the Botran’s 40%).
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| A Daiquiri made with Botran Reserva Blanca |
OK, so the Botran Reserva Blanca will retail for almost double what you can find the Bacardi and Havana Club rums for in supermarket offers, but inevitably that careful ageing and filtering is going to come at a price. But how does the Blanca compare with the standard Botran Reserva? The Reserva has more obvious wood, plus dried fruit like figs, orange and raisins. I have a bottle of Havana Club 7-year-old knocking around so I do a comparison: this is dry, appley like Calvados and has a more stern, single-minded balance. By comparison the Botran Reserva is wreathed in sweet sugar and almond softness and smooth, smoky wood.
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| A Mary Pickford made with the Botran Blanca |
This comparison helps me understand where the Blanca fits into the range. Whereas the Reserva (and more so the Solera 1893) is about in-your-face character and complexity, the Blanca is more about smoothness. I can see why they might encourage consumers to drink it neat, perhaps not as a profound character study, but as a clean, classy shot like premium vodka.
With this thought in mind I tried the Blanca from the freezer. It works OK, coming across at first with vodka-like medicinal notes, before the fruitiness hits and the sugar. I wouldn’t especially recommend it (but then I’ve never met a decent vodka that I thought was improved by being served frozen), yet it works well enough. For me the Botran Reserva Blanca works best in simple, classic rum cocktails.
* 2½ shots rum, ¾ shot lime juice, ¾ shot sugar syrup
** 2 shots rum, 2 shots pineapple juice, 1 tsp grenadine, dash of maraschino
How does it compare to havana club anejo blanco though? that, too, is a clear rum that is aged, albeit for a very short time. it is not filtered after aging, to my knowledge. I really like that one, since it doesn't actually taste like an aged spirit.
ReplyDeleteIf this tastes like an aged spirit, but looks clear, it's not my kind of thing.
A very good question: I used the 3-year-old simply because I had some to hand (for some reason the anejo blanco doesn't seem to be as widely available as the 3-year-old, the Especial or the 7-year-old). But I agree it would make sense to compare the two.
ReplyDeleteAs I say, it seems to me that the ageing that goes into Botran Blanca is most noticeable in the smoothness and delicacy of it: what you don't get is the big wood character, or the influence of what was in the barrel before, that you would typically get from aged rums.
I haven't found any Havana Club Anejo Blanco locally, but I picked up some Brugal Blanco Especial to compare with the Botran Blanca. It is a rum from the Dominican Republic, where they have been making it since 1888. It is triple distilled and then aged in oak for a year, before, like Botran, being filtered to remove the colour. It sells in the supermarket for £21, so it is in the same price bracket as Botran.
ReplyDeleteWhere the Botran has a soft, fruity nose with a caramel note, Brugal is crisper, sharper and leaner, with something like mint or pencil lead, plus a little orange peel. On the palate, Brugal is again lean, almost bitter, where the Botran seems soft and warm; the comparison also highlights the relative complexity of Botran, with an interplay of fruity and herb flavours—including, oddly, an element of anise that I hadn’t noticed before. The Brugal seems much simpler.
It seems only right to try these rums mixed too, so I blend each half-and-half with pineapple juice. And I’m struck by how much their distinct characters remain. The Botran is still soft and rich, with caramel notes coming through, a pretty seductive combination with the juice, caressing the tongue. Brugal is again lean, with the citrus notes emphasised. But it’s a much less comfortable partnership, resulting in a taste and smell that reminds me disconcertingly of tomatoes.
I always feel that these direct comparisons are a useful way of bringing a product’s character into focus and, as you can probably tell, the Botran wins hands-down for me. Not only is it both more approachable and more complex neat, but that style also makes it a very sympathetic partner, certainly with lime and pineapple juices.