Description
After the huge feedback and complete sellouts of our previous Ron Cubaney releases, we managed to get hold of the only bottles in Australia of another in the Ron Cubaney line of Solera aged rums from Dominican powerhouse distillery – Oliver and Oliver – The Ron Cubaney 18yo ‘Selecto’.
The 18yo ‘Selecto’ is aged using the traditional 3-step ‘Solera Method’. The solera method is based on stacking multiple layers of aging barrels (called “criaderas”) on top of each other, with each layer progressively topping up the next one down and blending with it, year after year. The bottom layer of casks is partially bottled, then topped up by the layer above. That layer is then topped up by the one above it, and so forth. The word “solera” comes from the Spanish word “suelo” which means “floor”. So as the angels take their share, the barrels are topped up with the contents of the slightly younger barrel and the average age of the barrel slowly increases over the years. The purpose of this labor-intensive process is the maintenance of a reliable style and quality of the rum over time.
Whilst now located in the Dominican Republic, the Oliver family originally hails from Cuba where they were renowned for their rum production prior to the Cuban revolution. The current owners consulted with ‘Maestros Roneros Cubanos’ (Cuban Rum Masters) who were living in exile in the Dominican Republic when they set up the current operation. This was to ensure the Oliver and Oliver rums were made with the same process, heritage and formula used in the 19th Century in Cuba.
Our Tasting Notes
Colour: Bright Copper
Nose: A savoury note at first the high cacao dark-chocolate
Palate: Sweet, light and fruity with espresso coffee and more dark chocolate notes.
Finish: All the flavour – no spice, no burn.
A beautifully aromatic rum that is a delight to savour on it’s own or use it in a cocktail when you’re looking for a splash of chocolate.
From Oliver and Oliver
This is the clearest of the series Gran Reserva (great reserve), with dark red hues and purple touches. This rum is well accomplished. It shows an elegant layer and an attractive bouquet where fruity fragrances, the oak present and the prominent characteristic of a long age process complement each other.
It is a round rum with great balance and harmony. It gets to be elegant and very delicate without being sweet. In the mouth it leaves a good and long taste.
Drink it in a balloon glass for a fulfilling enjoyment of its aromas.
About Oliver and Oliver
Cuba has always enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s foremost producers of rum. In the late nineteenth century some of the finest examples of Cuban rum were being produced by the Oliver family.
Juanillo Oliver, a Catalan and Mallorcan, arrived in Cuba in the mid-nineteenth century as a Spanish soldier, establishing his family on the island. After finishing his military service, Oliver decided to settle, in an area that later became known as Oliver, near the town of Las Placetas.
It was here that he and his family began to cultivate tobacco and sugar cane. The Oliver family soon began handling, storing and selling their traditionally grown products. They soon the built a mill to grind sugar cane for the production of sugars and alcohols, and Juanillo soon found himself creating local, artisanal rums and brandies.
The Oliver family’s name was soon synonymous with the finest central Cuban rums and cigars. That was to change as revolution gripped Cuba.
During the War of Independence, separatists attacked and burned farms and destroyed the famous Oliver family distillery.
After independence was achieved in Cuba, the Oliver family abandoned its sugar cane production business, instead focusing on the cultivation and production of tobacco and other businesses and agricultural activities. They continued peacefully until 1959, when revolution again struck Cuba.
In the years following 1959, many members of the Oliver family fled Cuba and their descendants spread throughout Europe and the Americas. It wasn’t until, in the late nineteen eighties, a member of the new generation of Oliver descendants returned to Cuba. Pedro Ramon Lopez Oliver’s curiosity led him to explore his family’s history. While poring over the family archives and papers, Pedro discovered the original formulas developed by the Oliver’s for the production of unique, hand-crafted Cuban rum.
Encouraged by his discovery, the descendants of Juanillo Oliver committed themselves to reviving the rum brand that had disappeared in the violence of revolution. In the early nineteen nineties Pedro and the wider Oliver family began to develop their rums, this time in San Francisco de Macoris in the Dominican Republic. It was here that Ron Cubaney – named after its rediscovered Cuban ancestry – was born.
The Dominican Republic shares many of the same characteristics of climate, topography, and geology as Cuba and was chosen as the ideal country in which to resume the manufacturing of this previously lost Cuban-style rum. The family operated distillery sought the advice of a group of Cuban Maestros Roneros who were living in exile in the Dominican Republic at the time. These Maestros Roneros Cubanos brought with them decades of experience in the production of Cuban rum, and became the ideal artisans to help reawaken the Ron Cubaney name.
Cuban experts were hired to help create the new plant for the production of rum in the pure, traditional Cuban style. The Oliver family had recreated the same process, heritage and formula used in the nineteenth century. Those techniques are still used by the present Maestros Roneros Cubanos and technicians.
The plant began by purchasing 100,000 litres of distillates and malts that had been aged for 15 years from a Demeraran source, forming the first stock produced under the new Cubaney name. This was the basis of their mother rum and the single point of origin for the rums being enjoyed today.
After a hiatus of over a century, the authentic line of Ron Cubaney can once again be enjoyed through its range of light, dark and spiced rums.
