Vale Verde 12 Anos. This cachaca has a very good reputation and is widely available (there is even a stockist here in the UK). It has won some quite prestigious awards since it’s release back in 2012.

Vale Verde 12 Anos is a 12 year old cachaca, which has been aged in European oak. It hails from Betim, Minas Gerais. A region well known for its excellent cachaca. The distillery is situated in “Vale Verde Alambique e Parque Ecologica” at Rua Ary Barbosa da Silva. This development houses the distillery which produced Vale Verde, a cachaca museum (which has over 2,000 cachacas on display) and a recreational/sight seeing park complete with man made waterfalls and various activities such as archery for visitors to enjoy.

In the early eighties the then owners of popular Brasillian lager brand “Kaiser” decided to branch out and begin producing cachaca. In 1985 the first Vale Verde cachaca was released. It was a 3 year old Premium cachaca aged in european oak barrels. his product remains available to this day.

Vale Verde or (Green Valley in English) produce their cachaca in small batches on Copper Pot Stills. The entire process from harvesting to ageing takes place on site. The founder of Vale Verde visited Scotland in the eighties to learn fermentation and distillation techniques, used in Scotch Whisky. One technique that is quite unique in the world of cachaca is filtering of the distillate through Pine Charcoal to reduce the acidity of the cachaca.

Vale Verde was the first to be recognized by Ampaq (Mineira’s Association of Quality Cachaça Producers) and currently has got a voluntary certification of INMETRO, which certifies the quality of the cachaca. For more information on this please read here.

For once I am reviewing a cachaca, which is easily available on the Brasilian domestic market but is also available right here in the UK. Specialist importer Delicias currently have this in stock. It isn’t cheap though at £169.95 for a 70cl bottle.

Vale Verde 12 Anos is bottled at 40% ABV. As well as the bottle pictured at the start of the review, they also have a Limited Edition “Gift” bottling which is a bit more upmarket/European in appearance and comes with a cork stopper rather than a screw cap. It is more expensive than the standard bottling. Nothing indicates the liquid is any different.

So lets take a look at this rather expensive cachaca and see how it shapes up against the others.

Vale Verde 12 Anos is a very bright golden yellow colour. Not as dark as you might expect of a 12 Year Old spirit. The hydrometer bobbed slightly below 40% ABV when I measured it. In cachaca you are pemitted to add 6g/L of sugar before you label your cachaca as dulce (sweet) cachaca. It seem Vale Verde have made full use just about of this allowance.

The nose is very fruity and quite sweet. Almost a little like crystalised fruits. It’s flowery with a fair amount of toffee. It is almost a little too sweet and does smell a touch confected. It just has something a little odd about it.

Further nosing and time in the glass seems to dull the sweetness a touch allowing more of the oak spices to shine through. It’s pleasant easy going nose but it doesn’t  strike me as being hugely complex.

Sipping Vale Verde 12 Anos is much woodier than the nose suggests. It’s quite similar to a Spanish style ron. In many ways it’s not a very “agricole” like cachaca. No grassy notes or other flavours I would normally associate with a cachaca.

The intial sweet entry of honey and light toffee gives way to some mild wood spice. There is a hit of slightly bitter oak on the mid palate which gives the cachaca but it’s still very easy going. It’s not hugely complex. I don’t think I would rate this particular cachaca in the same bracket as Havana Anisio Santiago or Cachaca Indaiazinha it just lacks the complexity.

Finish wise is perhaps the biggest let down it just kind of fades out to just about nothing. Pretty quickly as well.

This is a very easy going and very drinkable cachaca. I’m not sure I would want to be forking out £170 for a bottle though.