Cachaca Bandarra Salinas MG Brasil as the front label proclaims. The Salinas MG part relates to the city of Salinas in Minas Gerais State in South Eastern Brasil. Salinas an Minas Gerais are as synonymous the good cachaça as Jamaica and Barbados are with good rum.

So it is no surprise the Cachaca Bandarra note where their cachaça is from prominently. The journey of Cachaca Bandarra began in 1997 when entrepreneur Elber Sales, read a report where the Brasillian government where offering financial incentives for those willing to produce and export Cachaca outside of Brasil. The idea was to make Cachaca as internationally recognised as Mexico’s Tequila.

Now I would say that particular plan by the government hasn’t been all the successful – Cachaca is still very much a niche product outside of Brasil. It is certainly not as well recognised as Tequila, even now.

Cachaca Bandarra has been available since 1999 it was exported to Germany, France and Switzerland from 2001. Due to the popularity of the brand outside of Brasil it was unavailable domestically for a short period. In 2015 Cachaca Bandarra returned to the domestic market. During this time Elber Sales also seemed to have another cachaça on the market called ARA. I am unsure if this is still available.

Cachaca Bandarra is produced on Copper Pot Stills. The Cachaca is a blend of cachaca’s aged between 3 and 5 years. The cachaca’s are aged in Jequitiba and Balsam wood. It has been bottled at 40%ABV. It retails at around $R35 for the 700ml bottle in Brasil which is just under £7 sterling. I would expect to see if sell for around £25-30 where it to come to the UK market

The brand Bandarra, only have one cachaça in their line up. It is available in a variety of bottle sizes. Export bottles are available in 700ml (as pictured above) and domestically bottles can be found in 600ml, 250ml, 180ml and 50ml sizes. The 700ml bottle available for export is also sold in Brasil.

If you require more information the brand has its own website as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. So give them a follow.

In the glass Cachaca Bandarra is a straw colour. The nose is quite familiar and dare I say, quite typical of Cachaca from Salinas. It has quite a lot of vanilla and buttery shortbread. There is a white wine like note on the nose as well, some young(ish) sweet alcohol notes which give the nose a bit more bite.

Further nosing reveals some ginger and I really like the subtle woody notes and spices that the Jequitiba and Balsam wood give the spirit. It’s all nicely balanced and for a fairly young spirit its very encouraging.

The Cachaca Bandarra site has this down as a mixer – they offer a number of cocktails to try Cachaca Bandarra in. This initially made me wonder what it would be like as a sipper. The nose is making me re-think. So let’s see.

Sipped Cachaca Bandarra is relatively light overall. The sweeter alcohol notes on the nose do not transfer through to the sip. There is a hit of lemon/lime like citrus which is tempered by some very nice almost milky notes of light vanilla and very mild ginger.

It’s a refreshing easy going spirit. The mid palate has a slight smokiness to it and a little bit of a bitter note which give it a little more complexity. The finish is surprisingly long, for such a light spirit and it has an almost stone like/mineral quality to it. The cachaça fades into a smoky and quite spicy end. Notes of warming spicy wood and touches of vanilla ice cream.

Overall, this is a pleasant, quite easy going cachaça. It’s not as full flavoured or as powerful as some but it is certainly a very pleasant sipper with few off notes. As a mixer I found it worked quite well but could be overwhelmed a little too easily for my tastes though it does little to make any drink unpleasant.

For the price, it is a very well made and very tasty cachaça. One which I would be keen to see available in the UK.