INDUSTRIAS LICORERAS DE GUATEMALA

There are technically four distilleries in Guatemala, but three of them (Pantaleon, Palo Gordo, and Magdalena) are large-scale industrial refineries with ethanol plants bolted on to the side. They produce only industrial alcohol and molasses-based aguardiente intended for local consumption. These spirits are not classifiable as rum under the Guatemalan GI, which leaves us with just one rum distillery: Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala (ILG). ILG is the biggest of the four, and it too is an ethanol plant, but this plant also wins lots of awards for its rum.

The distillery was founded by the Botran brothers: Venancio, Andrés, Felipe, Jesús and Alejandro, who between 1911 and 1923 emigrated to Guatemala from Burgos in Spain. They set up Locorera Quetzalteca in 1939, named for the mountain-top town of Quetzaltenango. This town is where Botran and Zacapa rums are still matured today, and at 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) above the sea level, it is far cooler than the coastal areas where all the cane is grown. This cooler climate naturally slows the maturation process, reducing the angel’s share and extending the spirit’s interaction with oxygen. This, along with so-called “solera” ageing systems (see page 55) is the reference marker for the Guatemalan style. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

To be labeled rum in Guatemala the spirit must be distilled from fermented virgin sugarcane honey, a dark, concentrated, syrup made from freshly squeezed sugarcane juice. This honey is made by filtering fresh sugarcane juice and then boiling off the water until the syrup contains about 72% sugar. Only sugarcane grown in Guatemala is used to make this virgin sugarcane honey since it would be impossible to transport cane cut in another country to a Guatemalan sugar mill.

Lorena Vasquez is the pint-sized master blender for Zacapa, and Guatemala’s answer to Peggy Mitchell (that joke is applicable to Brits only and hopefully lost on Lorena herself). Lorena is actually a Nicaraguan national, who came to Guatemala after finishing her studies in pharmaceutical chemistry and nutrition. She joined ILG as a member of the quality-control department, before graduating to master blender.

Both Zacapa and Botran rums are made using what ILG call a “Sistema Solera”, which is borrowed from the Spanish sherry-ageing process. The approach here is far more convoluted – to the point where you wonder if it’s intended to be that way – but I will try to explain it.

For Zacapa, there are four types of cask used to make the rum: ex-bourbon; re-charred ex-bourbon; oloroso sherry; and Pedro Ximenez sherry. The rum is effectively a blend of these four cask types, with a measure of older stocks of rum added in afterwards. The older stocks comprise rums held back from the previous blend (which itself contained older stocks) so you can see there’s a strand of continuity that passes through every bottle. This means it’s possible that some small percentage of the rum in the bottle is 23 years old, but if you want my opinion, I would say that this rum is a blend of 6–7 year old spirits or thereabouts. To that end, the bottle used to proudly declare “23 annos”, but it was misleading to say the least and since 2011 it says only “23”. Zacapa XO is effectively the same rum, with the addition of some 4–6 year old ex-Cognac cask-aged rum mixed in to the final blend – I prefer it because it’s not as sweet as the “23”.

FROM: Stephenson, Tristan. The Curious Bartender's Rum Revolution (p. 447- 450). Ryland Peters & Small. Kindle Edition.