Cachaca Barril 12 Cachaca Extra Premium. We are back on the hunt for some Premium Cachaca, rums (though it’s highly debatable) older brother. Today we are visiting the city of Caldas Novas in the state of Goias located in the centre-left in Brasil.

Cachacaria Vale das Aguas Quentes is where Cachaca Barril 12 is produced. The sugarcane is harvested on site at the 300 hectare plantation. As well as sugarcane, local fruits are also grown at this location. Cachacaria Vale das Aguas Quentes produce a number of different products, such as flavoured cachaca and liqueuers. A full list of their products, can be found here.

The company has its own website. This is nicely designed but I would have liked to have had a bit more information on their production processes available. It just makes my life a little easier! It’s also good to get the facts from the horses mouth, so to speak.

Cachaca Barril 12 Cachaca Extra Premium has won numerous awards since its production began back in 2007. It is currently unavailable for export due to the demand in Brasil. The company at present cannot increase their production to make this cachaca available to overseas markets. So if you visit Brasil is this a cachaca worth picking up? Well we’ll come to that a bit later. First I’ll give some details of what I have been able to find out about this cachaca.

Cachaca Barril 12 is produced on Pot Stills in£28 small batches. It is then aged between 6 and 8 years in Oak and Chestnut casks. These casks are 200 litres in capacity and the ageing takes place in a kind of “attic” at the Cachacaria Vale das Aguas Quentes. Cachaca Barril 12 is available in a variety of bottle sizes 150ml,500ml and 670ml. It is bottled at 40% ABV.

Price wise you will be looking at paying around R$150 (£28 UK) were this to come to Europe I would be surprised to see it for anything less than £50. Presentation wise Cachaca Barril 12 would probably need a bit of a face lift – the bottle size would need to be standardised anyway, for the EU market. It’s very Brasilian in style. That said I do like the little round stubby bottle. The branding is strong if a little old fashioned. The screw cap would need to be altered to a cork as well.

Cachaca Barril 12 has won a few awards over the years as a few of the images online show. They’ve got quite a nifty looking visitor centre as well! So this should be fairly decent. It’s certainly got a nice amount of age to it, so lets dig in and see what we think.

In the glass we have a very vibrant golden brown liquid.

Nosing Cachaca Barril 12, you get an intial sweetness of toffee and a slightly menthol note. The oak and spice come through nicely with a good array of spices. A touch of cinnamon, some clove, traces of ginger which compliment the nice “woody” notes that also come through onto the nose.

It’s a light and very nicely balanced nose. I would say one of the best I have had so far in the Cachaca world. Everything just falls into place nicely.

Sipping on Cahaca Barril 12 is a similar experience in terms of balance. It’s a fantastically well balance spirit by any standards. Each and approachable but with enough complexity to keep you interested.

The initial sip is sweet and quite minty. It’s very smooth (not a word I like to use) and easy to drink. There is some “burn” but its a very pleasant array of the spices that first appeared on the nose, with an added layer of oak and the chestnut wood. This really adds a lovely softer array of flavours to the cachaca, Ginger, hints of cinnamon, toasted bread rolls, a little hit of sweet red grape.

Finish wise it hangs around longer than I had expected. It never “burns” as a stronger ABV spirit might but it tingles along on the tongue for a long time – giving you further time to appreciate the spices and flavours imparted by the 6 to 8 years of ageing in two different woods.

I’d say this is one of the best cachacas I have had to date. It really showcases the difference between well aged cachaca and the grassier unaged cachaca. NB – I’m not saying there is anything wrong with unaged cachaca just that they are very different spirits!

It’s also interesting to note that the another cachaca I reviewed from Goias state Cambeba, also came in a small rounded stubby bottle. It was also very good. So it’s definitely an area where they make some good stuff!

If you do get the chance to buy some of this then I would definitely do so.