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Hacienda Santa Ana’s visitor center. >Courtesy
Barrilito: Puerto Rico’s best known premium aged rum
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A manufacturing operation 142 years old
Juan A. Hernández, The Weekly Journal
If Doc Brown’s time machine was successful in showing us the past and then taking us back to the future in the 1985 film Back to the Future, such a device would be useless at Hacienda Santa Ana.
The fact of the matter is that neither
Edmundo B. Fernández, the original owner, or
Joaquín Bacardí and his associates, the new owners of the hacienda, have had the need for that kind of technology. The makers of the famed Barrilito Rum have been manufacturing their product the very same way they have been doing it for the past 142 years: “by hand.”
That is not to say that Hacienda Santa Ana is stuck in the past, but quite the contrary.
“Barrilito Rum is made following the same tried and true method designed by the brand’s founder,
Pedro Fernández, in 1880, and adhering to today’s highest quality standards,” said co-owner Joaquín Bacardí. “We have never changed the way we make our rum, Puerto Rico’s oldest brand in production,” he added. Joaquín is quick to differentiate his product from that of his family. “I have 30 years of experience in this industry, but I retired from Bacardí in 2016 after more than
Joaquín Bacardí, co-owner of Hacienda Santa Ana
20 years of service,” he said while emphasizing that Hacienda Santa Ana and Barrilito are a different entity and product from Bacardí.
“Ours is an artisan premium rum… this is a niche product. Hacienda Santa Ana only makes premium aged rums, nothing else. We don’t make light rums, flavored rums or spiced rums. We are experts at what we do: aged rums,” Joaquín stressed. The executive chairman of Hacienda Santa Ana pointed out the success and prestige of Barrilito lies in the company’s adherence to the Fernández family method. Back in the 1870s, a young Pedro Fernández was sent to France by his father to study engineering. In Paris, Fernández acquainted himself with a group of other young entrepreneurs that would later become notable French businessmen. Among them were, Henri Cartier, Gustave Eiffel, and brothers André and Edouard Michelin. Fernández also developed an interest for spirit beverages, particularly cognac. His interest was such that he meticulously studied the elaboration of the liquor.
After returning to Puerto Rico as a chemical engineer, Fernández started experimenting with developing a spirit with the only vegetable base readily available at the hacienda: sugar cane. For his experiments, Fernández used the very same procedures used for making cognac, until he finally came up with a formulation that satisfied his taste. In 1880, the first casks of Barrilito Rum were introduced in Puerto Rico. The secret to Barrilito’s success is the way it was, and is still made.
“Don Pedro personally macerated the ingredients he used in the making of Barrilito,” Joaquín said. “He never used [commercial] concentrated products which, even back then were already in use in the food and beverage industry,” he added.
Fernández instead created his own concentrates using neutral grade alcohol and did not add preservatives or any other additives to his formula.
According to Joaquín, preservatives and additives tend to decompose during the aging process, thus altering the taste and aroma of the rum. “Rum distillers using concentrates with additives then need to use other ingredients –such as caramel– to mask those unwanted flavors and aromas,” he said.
Another of the secrets of Barrilito is that only rain water is used in its elaboration.
“We don’t use city water for our dilutions and mixes. Rain water is collected from the roofs of the buildings and stored in our 70,000 gallon cistern. The water is filtered and then stored in tanks ready for use,” Joaquín explained.
The third of Barrilito’s secrets is its aging process.
Barrilito’s product line-up, the historical Two-star and Threestar rums, as well as the newer Four and Five stars, are aged, since day one, in 100 percent “dolorosa” sherry casks from Spain.
“This process is more elaborate and gives Barrilito Rum its unique properties,” Joaquin said.
New Stars to the Barrel
When Joaquín and his associates acquired Hacienda Santa Ana in 2017 they discovered an unused inventory of casks well over 20 and 30 years-old.
“The Fernández family was so strict with its formula that, when casks exceeded their required aging period, they left them there and didn’t use them,” Joaquín said. Two-star Barrilito is aged between three to five years, and Three-star Barrilito is aged between five to 10 years.
“So, we ended up with a huge inventory of superaged rums –beyond 20, 30 and even 40 years,” Joaquín explained. “In order not to lose that rum –because it continues to evaporate– I asked our master blender to develop two formulas: Five-star Barrilito, the most important because it has the oldest rums, and Four-star.” Five-star Barrilito has a 35-year-old rum base, and Fourstar Barrilito a 20-year-old rum base. Each bottle retail for $750 and $300, respectively. “The top seller at the Hacienda’s Visitor Center is Barrilito Four-stars. This is a $300 rum. Who sells $300 rums? We do.
And that is only possible if the people believe the product is worth it,” a proud Joaquín stated. Barrilito Five-Stars is a limited edition rum which, even the company’s chairman is not sure whether it will be produced ever again. “We used all the available casks for that run, and we produced 3,500 bottles when it was introduced in 2018,” Joaquín said of the limited edition spirit, of which about half of the original run is now left. “Both rums are spectacular, with an impeccable balance between the wood and its base,” he assured.
Only for the true connoisseur
Hacienda Santa Ana has yet another super premium rum to offer. Its special Autobiography program offers people interested in creating their own label the possibility not only to do so, but to choose the spirit’s profile the preferred by customer. Joaquín Bacardí, executive chairman of Hacienda Santa “We present them casks between 20 and 40 Ana. >Courtesy years old that we still have in our inventory. We let them sample each cask before they choose the one that speaks the most to them,” explained
In fact, Joaquín. “This is a single cask rum with the taste profile they like best.” According to the rum impresario, Autobiography has been a very successful program, with at Hacienda Santa least one cask sold for $400,000. A world record, Ana’s Autobiography according Joaquín. program has been a The final price of the cask is determined by its very successful, with age and the volume it yields (age + volume) at least one cask sold Joaquín revealed that another cask was recently for $400,000. sold to a major hotel in San Juan for its most exclusive guests and patrons. The hotel will be making the announcement in the near future. “We will never be a mass brand because it is against our nature. We are a high quality premium aged rum. That is what we were, what we are and what we will be,” Joaquín sentenced.
Hacienda Santa Ana’s warehouse. This is where Barrilito Rum is aged in sherry casks for up to 10 years. >Photo: Juan A. Hernández
