Puntacana Club’s premium rum is rightfully elusive: the Internet is full of rave reviews about it and regrets from connoisseurs who don’t know where to find this drink. The thing is that Puntacana Club’s export history is just beginning: until recently, it was sold only in some Dominican outlets and duty-free shops. So far, the drink is supplied to Russia in very small batches.
Historical reference. Spanish army soldier Juanillo Oliver arrived in Cuba in 1868 as part of an expeditionary force sent to put down the uprising. The war lasted 10 years, and when the rebels were finally defeated in 1878, Senor Oliver resigned, but remained on the island, started a family and farm. Don Juanillo was born in Catalonia, where the science of winemaking is learned from childhood. So, on his plantation planted with sugar cane, the veteran first built a distillery for making rum.
At that time, the Facundo Bacardi method was considered advanced, which made it possible to purify and refine rum from molasses. However, Señor Oliver preferred to make a light rum from pure fermented sugar cane juice.
By the end of the 1895th century, the Olivers owned a sugar factory and a distillery, where they produced premium rum that won several awards at prestigious international exhibitions. But in XNUMX, a new war broke out in Cuba, during the fighting, the sugar factory and the distillery burned to the ground.
At the end of the war, the family did not restore the destroyed production, but took up the cultivation of tobacco. In 1959, the revolutionary government nationalized the Oliver plantations and the former owners emigrated.
In 1982, Pedro Ramon López Oliver (great-great-great-grandson of Don Juanillo) went to Cuba in search of the family archive. The young man found and deciphered the records of his ancestor, among which were unique rum recipes. Several family members decided to revive the business and in the 90s registered Oliver & Oliver in the Dominican Republic. Almost all of its staff consisted of Cuban immigrants and their descendants.
The company still does not have its own distillery. Entrepreneurs decided to purchase the best varieties of Caribbean rum, and in the Dominican Republic they were mixed and aged according to family recipes. The company began its activities by purchasing 1994 liters of 100000-year-old Panamanian rum in 15. Three years later, the first rum produced by Oliver & Oliver entered the market. Soon the demand for the drink began to outstrip the supply.
In 2011, the Chicago Beverage Testing Institute recognized the company’s Cubaney rum as the best rum in the Dominican Republic, awarding it more points than the famous brands Barcelo and Matusalem. But the rum Puntacana Club, created in 2005, was found by experts to be too sweet, which is why there is no information about it on the website of the influential Ministry of Rum community.
Punta Cana is a famous resort in the Dominican Republic. Rum Puntacana Club was created in such a way that the consumer gets the maximum pleasure from it. All products of the line really have an unusual, but very soft and pleasant taste, in which there is no alcohol component.
The reasons for this are in the features of the beverage production technology:
- for the manufacture of rum, distillates are mixed from fermented sugar cane juice, and not from molasses. As a result, the drink is sweeter;
- the company purchases the best rum spirits produced in Panama, Nicaragua, and Martinique – at enterprises where the distillation process takes place at temperatures 10–15 ° C lower than in the Dominican Republic;
- first, the rum is aged according to the solera system, and then in the usual way, in bourbon, sherry and port wine casks.
In the Dominican Republic, rum producers enjoy significant benefits, but customs duties are high. Because of them, in the first 10 years of its existence, the company exported only small batches of especially old and expensive rum. In addition, the company regularly takes part in various exhibitions, organizes tastings and rum festivals, but hardly finances ordinary advertising. Therefore, there is little information about Puntacana Club even on the Web.
The volume of production of Oliver & Oliver by 2014 has grown to 2 million liters of rum per year. The company has expanded its export geography, now Puntacana Club can be purchased in Russia.
Types of rum Puntacana Club
Puntacana Club rum is produced in 7 varieties:
- Puntacana Silver Dry is a clear colorless rum with a strength of 37,5%, with a delicate fruity-floral aroma and a dry taste. The drink is especially good for making “Mojito”;
- Puntacana Club Black is an old mahogany-colored rum (34%), a mixture of alcohols aged 12–15 years according to the solera system. The drink is fragrant with a tropical forest, the taste harmoniously combines notes of chocolate, pastries and sugar cane;
- Puntacana Club Esplendido – golden rum (38%), a mixture of spirits aged according to the “solera” system for 12-20 years. The taste is balanced, spicy, with chocolate sweetness and bitterness of roasted coffee beans. Aftertaste – long, warm;
- Puntacana Club Muy Viejo is an old amber color rum (37,5%), a blend of 8-year-old solera rums. The sweet aftertaste of creamy biscuits is balanced by astringent oak bitterness;
- Puntacana Club Tesoro is a 38% golden red rum aged 15 years in single malt Scotch whiskey casks. The drink has a floral aroma and dry spicy taste. Aftertaste – long, spicy;
- Puntacana Club XOX Anniversario 50 – mahogany-colored rum (40%), 25-year-old solera. Soft taste with hints of caramel and roasted nuts gives way to a warm aftertaste with a dominant woody note.
