Joined in 2023 
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There are bottles of the 15 year old out there, but the marquee Ron Zacapa is easily its 23 year, an age that seems geriatric for a “starter” bottle (and like lost youth for the rest of us). Because it’s aged at such elevation, the aging process itself is a lot gentler —consistent cooler temperatures and lower atmospheric pressure ease the natural molecular exchange between spirit and barrel. We compare it to spending your 30s in a quiet spa versus in an over-sugared kindergarten classroom that just banned naptime. The rum is 23, but also 6. This means two things. Firstly, that the sugar cane used to make Ron Zacapa rum is actually harvested by hand, which leads to a smarter yield at greater discretion of the harvester (as opposed to mechanized efficiency that also can’t selectively recognize perfect ripeness). Additionally, the company is so committed to efficiency and quality that it developed a custom tool to harvest sugar cane at its freshest. And said tool is a hybrid machete. A hybrid machete. It is special from the very start. Referred to as 'virgin honey', the sugar cane juice is 14% sugar (76-77 brix) and is heated to evaporate water and concentrate the sugary solution. The natural yeast culture used to ferment this sugary juice was originally taken from pineapples and batch fermentation occurs in closed tanks. A lot of bottle swag is exactly that — swag, the final touches of branding. In other words, bizarro decoration from a marketing team groping at authenticity with kitschy regional signifiers. But the woven rings on Ron Zacapa 23 are the real thing. Another of Lorena Vásquez’s passion projects to showcase and financially empower local communities, the rings are made from dried palm leaves and hand-woven by local indigenous women in the petate-style of the Guatemalan Maya. The distillery developed a hybrid machete. After distillation, the spirit (which comes off the still at 88% alc./vol.) is reduced to 60% before going into scraped and cleaned American oak ex-bourbon barrels for three years. After this first aging period the run is blended in a large vat where it is mixed with just over 10% of much older rum. It is then re-casked in recharged barrels and left for a further two years before again going into a blending vat where it is once again mixed with older rums. This process is repeated a third time but the rum is then placed in ex-sherry butts for another two years before again being blended with older rums. For the fourth and final aging process the rum spends two years in Pedro Ximénez sherry butts. Finally, the rum is blended and mixed with older rums then reduced to 46% alc./vol. before going into a large (17k-20k litres) American oak vat to marry for six months.
Most rum is distilled from molasses, with yeast feasting on those darker caramelized sugars. Ron Zacapa is distilled from something called “virgin sugar cane honey,” or “virgin honey,” the syrup that comes from the first pressing of the cane plant, with about 72 percent sugar content, compared to molasses’ approximate 50 percent. Combine that with the gentler aging process (see “Star Wars” below), and you start to see where the aspirational finesse of the Ron Z flavor profile comes from. It has something in common with “Star Wars.” Zacapa 23 contains a blend of rums from 6 to 23 years old. It’s wonderfully intricate with honeyed butterscotch, spiced oak and raisined fruit, showcasing the complexity of the sistema solera ageing process. Nose Wonderfully complex, generous and full-bodied, with a sweet honeyed viscosity atypical of an aged spirit; a great depth of raisined fruit and apricot preserves, building to an intense heart of savoury oak, nutmeg, leather and tobacco with notes of coffee and delicately sweet vanilla, balanced with a spicy touch of cinnamon and ginger on the pleasantly astringent finish; truly a rum for the discerning palate. Serving suggestions A soft start which develops complexity in the glass; sweet aromas of caramel, vanilla, cacao and butterscotch, combining with layers of flavour indicative of the different barrels in the solera process; sherried notes of caramelised, roasted brazil nuts and toasted hazelnut, and the characteristic rounded toffeed banana and dried pineapple of ex-American whiskey casks. Palate
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