S.B.S – The 1423 Single Barrel Selection Brazil 2013/2017. 1423 have released a few “Brazilian Rums” over the past few years – they even blended one with a Barbados rum.

Now technically the juice in this bottle is Cachaca. However due to a lack of understanding regarding Cachaca’s independent bottlers and even brands such as Ben Bom label their products “Brazilian Rum”. I guess this helps appeal and not alienate certain consumers who do not understand the spirit. Fair enough I say.

In fairness to 1423 on their website they do note this as Brazilian Cachaca Rum. Looking at the bottle, it is not immediately identified as rum or cachaca from what I can see. I’m going to call it cachaca for the purpose of this review – even though the part ageing in Europe for some might suggest it shouldn’t be labelled cachaca.

Luckily quite a lot of other information is available both on the bottle and at their website. So lets take a look and see exactly what the juice in this bottle might be…..

The cachaca comes from the Pardin Distillery. You can read a review of one of their more famous bottlings here courtesy of Rum Diaries Blog. It is 100% Pot Still cachaca made with fresh sugar cane juice. A portion of this cachaca was distilled in 2013 and some was distilled in 2017. They have been married together into one barrel which eventually yielded just 282 bottles. It has been finished in an ex-Oloroso sherry cask before being bottled in August 2020 in Denmark.

It has been bottled at 45% ABV. Legally Cachaca cannot exceed 48% ABV. If it does it is called Aguardente de Cana. In Europe I guess such a spirit could be labelled rum.

S.B.S – The 1423 Single Barrel Selection Brazil 2013/2017 retails at around £100 and is currently available at Master of Malt. Presentation wise it comes in their signature stubby bottle and you get an attractive carboard sleeve with a “viewing slot” so you can see your rum.

I’m quite excited to see independent bottlers picking up cachaca and giving it an “exotic” finish. It will be interesting to see how this works!

In the glass we are presented with a very dark brown spirit. Almost mahogany like.

The nose is an inviting harmony of conventional aged cachaca notes – light vanilla, some soured cream, clotted cream and some light spicy wood and the Oloroso finish.

So we are presented with sweet rich notes of raisin, honey, citrus and some white wine. The nose is rich and full. It’s almost luxurious and dense. Very dense.

It has a very distinctive orange aroma to it as well. But not in the sweetened liqueuer sense like Pyrat XO – it is authentic and reminds me of Seville Oranges.

It’s a very nice and very inviting nose.

Sipped Pardin Oloroso is not as sweet as the nose suggested. I was suspicious that some of the Oloroso was still swishing around the barrel but once I tasted this I wasn’t quite so sure (there isn’t I Hydrometer tested it as well, its clean). It’s much more citrus heavy than I was expecting with far more “bite” and spice particularly on the initial entry.

There is more cachaca than I was expecting with a very nice mid palate built around delicate vanilla and some double cream. A pleasant array of spices – a touch of Christmas cake remind you of the Oloroso finish. As things should be with a finished or second maturation the Oloroso doesn’t dominate – it contributes and brings extra layers to the cachaca. You can always taste the cachaca though.

As you continue to sip the initial entry shows more of the raisin and fruitiness that was on the nose. The mid palate and finish continue you to grow in complexity. This makes for a really nice sipper. It’s sweet but not in an “added sugar” kind of way.

The finish is long and has a lot of stoned fruits and berries. A slightly bitter note mingles alongside the warming oak spices which build and slowly fade away nicely.

A lovely spirit overall really tasty and full of both cachaca and sherry flavours.