Cachaca Bandarra
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 bitte
r 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.
Raising Glasses Puyuma Renaissance Distillery Cognac Cask Rum.
Rum & Cane Merchants Mauritius XO Single Cask. I’ve covered a bottling from Rum & Cane Merchants previously. If memory serves me correctly that was an offering from 
Another and personally this is not so much of an issue, is the ABV. A lot of the time when people buy Single Cask rum they like to feel they are getting it direct from the Cask, with no further interference. For some even the addition of water will lead them to seek out a Cask Strength alternative.
Anyway, enough of my jabberings. Lets get on a see how this rum goes down.
This is a really interesting bottling. It’s best described as aged Rhum Agricole with a drop or two of Tabasco towards the end. It combines everything you want and enjoy in aged Agricole Rhum with spicy twist at the end.
Bimber Distillery London Rum. The Bimber journey is one that has it’s beginnings in Malt Whisky. The Craft Micro Distillery at 56 Sunbeam Road, London NW10 6JQ began by producing a Malt Whisky.
tch No. 001. In the glass we are presented with a clear white spirit. A very standard “white” rum.
J Gow Revenge Aged 3 Years. This is the third aged release from VS Distillers, who are based in the Orkney Islands, just off the North East coast of Bonny Scotland. VS Distillers refers to the man behind J Gow Rum Collin Van Schayk. Clever eh?
I think I’ve covered pretty much everything now so we may as well get on with the fun part and see what this “Scottish Rum” has to offer.
It’s interesting to note the progression as unlike the Fading Light, the molasses notes aren’t as dominant. Sure they are there but they are tempered and balanced more by the barrel influence. Very nicely balanced.
Cane Island are a relative newcomer to the market. Last year they released a range of aged rums from Cuba, Barbados and Jamaica. These were blends of rums from two different distilleries from each location.
nd of pot/column rum that has been matured in ex-bourbon barrels. I am not sure how much time this has spent maturing in the Tropics or Europe in total. The colour of the rum gives few clues as it is a standard caramel coloured golden brown.
