Cachaca Sebastiana Duas Barricas Quatro Anos. Hailing from the Alambique Santa Rufina, Rodovia, Sao Paulo state. The brand Sebastiana is fairly recent to the market but the distillery has been operational over 60 years.

Prior to the release of the Sebastiana brand in 2014, the distillery produced (and still does) Cachaca Faceira. It was the second generation of cachaca producers in the Mattos family who decided to enter what they term as the “Super Premium” cachaca market.

Cachaca Sebastiana’s name derives from this little tale spun on the website

“In the 1960s, Fazenda Santa Rufina, located in Ibaté, a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, produced cachaça so good that one of its great connoisseurs compared it to the legs of a beautiful girl who worked at the sugar mill, named Sebastiana . For this reason, initially, the “danada de boa” cachaça was named by the Barros de Perna de Moça family. Much time has passed, and in order to rescue more than 60 years of tradition, the second generation of producers from Alambique Santa Rufina, launched its super premium cachaça with the name of Sebastiana, also in honor of the girl with beautiful legs.”

Although Cachaca Sebastiana have their own website. It does not give much background as to how this cachaca is produced. So I have to hunt around and do a bit of guess work.

Cachaca Sebastiana is produced from hand harvested estate grown sugar cane. Once fermneted the wash is then distilled on Alembic Copper Pot Stills. For this expression the resulting distillate is then aged for 2 years in Castanheira (Chestnut) casks and then it is transferred to American Oak for a further 2 years maturation.

Cachaca Sebastiana have 4 expressions in their portfolio from a Cristal cachaca, to this their Super Premium release. As you can see from the pictures this particular cachaca is already well geared up in terms of presentation, for release outside of Brasil. Indeed whilst researching this particular brand I noticed that the notorious (ask any Canadian rum fan living in the province) LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) picked Cachaca Sebastiana for distribution back in 2017.

Sadly, I could not find it listed currently on the LCBO website. Nor can I find this currently outside of Brasil for sale. Which is a bit surprising as it has faired very well at some well respected competitions such as IWSC, as recently as 2018.

Cachaca Sebastiana Duas Barricas Quatro Anos is bottled at 40% ABV. Presentation wise it comes with a concise clutter free label and the square, squat shaped bottle is topped of by a cork stopper with a black wax seal. It has a Premium Rum look to it. In Brasil it retails at various price points depeding on the seller. In the end I went with the producers own link. This shows it usually retails at R$275 (£38) but is currently reduced to R$190 (£27).

Should this come to the UK I think it would be pretty pricy around £80 at a guess.

So lets move along and see how this latest cachaca tastes. spices

In the glass Cachaca Sebastiana Duas Barricas Quatro Anos is a light golden brown colour.

Nosed, I am immediately but in mind of American Bourbon Whiskey, there is a strong aroma of oak and vanilla. Especially when it has just been poured. Given 5 minutes you begin to notice more traditional cachaca aromas. Nice wafts of double cream and a waxy soapy note.

Further nosing reveals more spices and aromas -ginger,a touch of licorice and fennel. A fruity almost white wine burst of grape and a twist of lemon juice. It’s delicate, yet complex enough to be rewarding. It’s all very harmonious and well balanced.

Sipping Cachaca Sebastiana Duas Barricas Quatro Anos it is quite a distinctive and unusual tasting cachaca. It is more “citrus” heavy than the nose suggested. Quite “lemon-ey” in terms of flavour. The slighty sharp note is contrasted and balanced by delicate creamy flavours of vanilla ice cream and creme fraiche.

The mid palate is a touch on the light side. It doesn’t hold it’s flavour quite as well as I would like. This would certainly benefit from an uplift in ABV to around 46%. That should help sustain the flavour of the cachaca, which whilst fairly brief is very tasty and distinctive. You’ll sip this often and it’s very drinkable. There are no off notes with it.

Finish wise again it is slightly lacking. It is just a bit too gentle and it leaves little more on the finish other than some light ginger and a touch of oak.

Great nose and a lovely entry and whilst the flavour lasts this is very good. It just almost seems to run out of steam. That said I think a higher ABV would easily solve this issue. It would be more in keeping with something like this.

Had this been a little less expensive, I likely would have cut it more slack. However, they market it as “Super Premium”……..