It's not everyday you find a rum that touts an age of 77 years old - and to be clear, we're not talking about some dusty 5 Year Old rum that was produced in the 40's and forgotten in a liquor cabinet, only to be unearthed by someone's grandchild - we're talking about a rum that's sat in an oak cask for over seven decades that's only recently been bottled. That sort of ultra-age is far beyond anything that is being put out in the last two decades, and as the saying goes, truly takes the cake. Even the historic rums that come to mind - the Port Mourant 1972 and Skeldon 1973 Guyanese Demerara's bottled by Velier for example - typically only go back to the 1970's, with perhaps only the Rhum Clement's of Martinique going back any further, and even so the oldest that we know of is the 1952 vintage that's aged for some 38 years.

The Unsolved Mystery Of The Super Old Cuban Rums

And so with that sort of age statement (and vintage), one can't help but take notice. Where it really starts to inspire intrigue is when a couple of these begin to show up within a span of 2-3 years into 2025 - before the 1948 Cabeza Llena there was the 1956 Hoy Como Ayer (also from Cuba and bottled by Velier, where the two ultra-aged Cubans form the Italian bottler's Aconcha series, so named after the Cuban artist whose works adorn the series' bottlings), other European bottlers too appear to be part of this party, with The Whisky Agency having bottled a 1963 Cuban Rum (60 Year Old), a 1967 Cuban Rum (58 Years Old) and also a 1968 Cuban Rum (56 Years Old); even the relatively newer (yet very formidable) Chapter 7 and Spheric Spirits have gotten their hands on a 1948 Cuban Rum (76 Years Old) and a 1973 Cuban Rum (50 Years Old) respectively, and then a couple too have been spotted in the hands of Asian bar-bottlers such as Lucky Choice with their 1955 Cuban Rum (67 Years Old), which is said to be a cask share with the highly regarded European bottler Sansibar (who've also got their own 67 Years Old 1955 Cuban Rum). What's perhaps most alluring about these rums is that many of these vintages are pre-Castro, the infamous revolutionary who took over Cuba in 1959 and ruled until 2008 - that is, these were rums distilled before Castro had nationalised every distillery in Cuba, reshaping the entire rum-making landscape on the island!

Cuba, the Home of Rum.

Sidenote: This is besides Valdespino's Legend of Cuban Rum which is well-documented as to the Valdespino family's private stock (of Cuban rums distilled in the 1940's) that had been set and maintained in a solera system in the family's winery in Jerez, Spain, which were eventually bottled and sold in periodic batches after the bodega was acquired by the Estevez family in 1999.

This all to say that their sudden appearance would seem to imply that someone out there has been letting go of parcels of these very old Cuban rums - or rons, to be technically accurate. Just a surface level analysis would also seem to imply that whoever is letting go this parcel of very old casks of Cuban rums certainly has a strong relationship with the European bottlers given how most of them seem to land in the hands of these folks - not remotely a bad thing of course! What's then also really intriguing is that with all of these rums, we don't quite seem to have any detail about them or who produced them, beyond the fact that they're from Cuba, their vintages, and that some of them have continued to age in Cuba in oak all this time. We don't know who (one party, or multiple parties who sold it to these European bottlers), what (else are they sitting on; were they trying to do with these rums in the first place; capacity do they operate in), where (did they get them from, that is, who produced it), when (did they get their hands on these barrels of rum), why (why are they letting go of these very old barrels of rum now, after having sat on it for so long) and how (did they get these barrels of rum in the first place)!

Now of course, I'm of no illusion that no one knows the answers to these mysteries of the rum universe - some folks out there know the answer, certainly these bottlers do! And try as I might, I have been unable to glean even a shred of information about them (and so if you know anything about it, please enlighten me, and I don't even have to tell anyone about it, I promise!), which makes it all the more peculiar.

The once La Vizcaya distillery in Cardenas, Cuba.

What has nevertheless swirled around the community is talk of how these rums might actually all come from a single distillery - La Vizcaya, that is the original home of where Havana Club was first created in Cárdenas, Cuba - and that the stock had been brought to either E&A Scheer (who of course sits on perhaps the largest stock of old rums by the cask) or Cadenhead's, which were then declined and subsequently helped to be sold off to European bottlers as part of an organised sale. Now how confident am I of that theory? I'm about as close to the ABV of water in percentage terms. Other tangential rumors have also of course been tossed forward, being that these rums don't in fact come from one single parcel or a single seller, and that not all of them were aged entirely in Cuba, and that some had in fact been brought over to Europe where it's been lying asleep for decades (which would lend some credence to the E&A Scheer theory), or that others had been aged tropically but not in Cuba (because who would sit on them in casks for decades in Cuba?! Would that even be possible?!), with finally a few speculating that these rums were not in fact aged in oak this whole time, and that instead they had been in demijohns (although it is well understood that Cuban rons tend to prefer really old, inert casks that would prevent them from gaining too much oakiness, keeping them light and elegant).

Who knows! These bottlers do! 

Cuba has historically been one of the world's largest sugar producer.

Regardless in my bid to find out more about them in the hopes of gaining some insight, I was inevitably taken down a historical tour on the origins and evolution of Cuban rums!

The History Of Cuban Rum

It all starts with the first stalk of sugarcane, doesn't it? 

Although sugarcane was first introduced to the Americas in the 1400's by Christopher Columbus, it would only find its way into the island of Cuba in 1511, when Spanish colonizer Diego Velazquez de Cuellar had first arrived. For centuries, Cuban sugarcane was only as useful as it could be pressed to make juice cheaply for those working on the island, and it wasn't until the 1600's that refineries or mills known as centrales started being built to turn juice into sugar. It's worth pointing out that Cuba has a special terroir consisting of incredibly fertile soils and a deeply tropical climate that makes it ideal for agricultural produce, which is why Cuban tobacco, coffee and sugarcane are highly prized. And so with time as the sugar trade grew, so did the popularity of these centrales, and where there's molasses (a byproduct of sugar refining), there's bound to be rums being made (where they are called aguardiente, or firewater). Rums were already being made around that time in the Caribbeans in places such as Barbados, Jamaica and Martinique, and so would eventually make its way to Cuba as well, with pot stills being the earliest forms of distillation apparatus. This was nevertheless quickly stymied in 1714 when the Spanish Crown would announce a Royal Decree that all rum-making equipment be confiscated and destroyed, so as to protect the sale of Spanish brandy and wine. Yet, by 1762, the British would take control, if briefly, of Cuba during the Seven Year War, before handing the island back to Spain (trading Cuba for Florida) the very next year as part of the Treaty of Paris - although relatively short, the British would establish trade routes for Cuban sugar to be sold to its colonies in North America, which caused sugar sales to soar, and in turn driving up an emphasis on sugarcane farming.

Where there's sugarcane, there's sure to be rum.

Sensing opportunity, the Spanish Crown would legalise Cuban rum-making in 1777 (going so far as to direct rum-makers to make lighter, more delicate styled spirits known as ron ligero or light rum, which has come to shape Spanish style rons till today), and by the early 1800's, Cuba was not only one of the world's biggest producers of sugar (hence nicknamed "the sugar bowl of the world", and thereby producing so much molasses that rons made in Cuba are exclusively made with local Cuban molasses), but also supplied massive amounts of its rums, in particular the the US, hitting 75,000 hectoliters (equivalent to 10 million standard sized bottles) by the turn of the century! The onset of the Industrial Revolution only served to turn things up even more, with steam engines resulting in significant improvements to the efficiency of these centrales. All through this time, the Cuban people would come to see locally produced ron as not only a pillar of their economy, but even more so a matter of national identity and pride. As Cuba began its fight for independence from the Spanish, the build up that would culminate in the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) would prove potent in spurring national champions to emerge - Bacardi and Ron Santiago de Cuba amongst other producers would mark their debut in 1962, with Ron Matusalem following soon after, establishing itself in 1872.

The Pioneers Of Cuban Rum

Undeniably central to the Cuban ron story is of course Bacardi. Bacardi was founded in 1862 by one Facundo Bacardi Masso, who was a Spanish immigrant and wine merchant that had settled in Cuba, having purchased a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba which would eventually become Bacardi - yet it was his contributions to improving Cuban rum-making, and thereby helping further define Spanish styled rons, that would etch him into the rum world's hall of fame. Facundo had for long found a disjoint between the rough image that rums had at the time, largely seen as cheap and to put bluntly alcohol for alcohol's sake, and yet there was a fast growing market for higher quality alcoholic beverages where rums were completely absent. This led Facundo to spend over a decade refining how rums were made, first starting with isolating a new proprietary yeast from local sugarcane that would create more elegant flavours, and then subsequently, pioneering the use of charcoal filtration to remove impurities and create a cleaner spirit, before finally bringing blending to rums, by concluding that he could combine two distillates, a flavour and robust aguardiente with a more mellow and rich redestillado, the cuvee of the two would then be aged in white oak barrels so that they could marry harmoniously. The result of which was a completely new style of rum at the time that was intentional and demonstrated craftsmanship.

The 1889 Exposition Universelle was also the event that debuted the Eiffel Tower to the world!

At the same time, more work and research was being done in Europe to improve the distilling process. Scotsman Robert Stein would create the earliest instance of a multi-column still, whilst Irishman Aeneas Coffey would further enhance the column still, creating what is iconically known today as the Coffey still. In the 1889 Exposition Universelle held in Paris, Facundo's son-in-law Enrique 'Henri' Schueg would attend a demonstration of the use of the Coffey still and was so impressed (with its efficiency and ability to produce a lighter and cleaner rum that the Spanish preferred) that he would bring it back to Bacardi's distillery, marking the arrival of column stills in Cuba, which would eventually become the backbone of Spanish style rons. 

The Spanish Solera system sees Sherry of different ages stacked in layers where they are progressively taken from a top layer and filled to a bottom layer that becomes a perpetual blend. 

The other pioneers such as Ron Matusalem would also bring to the country's ron-making the Solera system of blending, taking a page from Spanish Sherry, whilst Ron Santiago de Cuba would serve as a longstanding guardian of this very distinct style of Cuban ron-making, drawing upon the provenance of Cuban sugarcane and molasses, and helping to further entrench Cuba as the home of Spanish style rons, precisely articulating that defining ron ligero style, which has made the brand even said to be the personal favourite of Castro! As these champions of Cuban ron settled in, they've since come to define the style which has been cemented as a Geographical Indication (GI) that protects its production - the GI states that Cuban ron has to be made with Cuban-grown sugarcane, fermented and aged in Cuba, that's then put through continuous column distillation, before finally undergoing a two-stage ageing process in white oak barrels, first ageing the aguardiente for at least 2 years, and then carbon filtering it, followed by blending it with high-proof destilado that's then further aged (no artificial additives of course!).

How Cuban Rums Took Over The World

The ease in which these Cuban rons lent themselves to any number of iconic Cuban-created cocktails - such as the Mojito, the Daiquiri, the El Presidente, and the more historical Canchánchara - further cemented and propelled the popularity of the category. Yet into the 1920's, what would have otherwise been intuitively thought to be a surefire killer for alcohol producers would turn out to be yet another massive boost to Cuban rums - that was Prohibition. When Prohibition was passed across the US, sought to bring about temperance through going dry, the reality was that Americans never lost their appetite for a great drink, which in turn made Cuba an incredibly popular holiday destination for what was cheekily called "wet weekends". And so whilst distilleries certainly lost a good amount of sales, the forbidden fruit allure of Cuban rums only grew, once again vaulting Cuban rums and cocktails into American pop culture, with the likes of prolific writers such as Ernest Hemingway and any number of silver screen movie stars often touting Cuban products as their libation of choice. As Prohibition lifted into the 1930's, business in Cuba began to improve, with the country once again becoming one of the world's most formidable producer of rum and sugar.

A wet weekend in Cuba sounded like the best idea.

Now as Prohibition was repealed and the floodgates for rum's return to the US was busted wide open, it's unsurprising that some of Cuba's distilleries would look to seize the opportunity for a grand re-introduction - one such distillery was the La Vizcaya distillery which would create the iconic Havana Club brand.

A Superstar Emerges, How Havana Club Was Created

Founded in 1878 by Jose Arechabala, a Spanish industrialist who had set sail for Cuba at just 15 years old and had worked his way up first the sugar trade and later banking and shipping, the La Vizcaya distillery was located in the seafaring town of Cárdenas, just east of Havana. Life was nothing short of a rollercoaster for Arechabala family, who would endure many trying moments of hardship from assassinations to natural disasters, one in particular being a massive hurricane that would strike Cuba in 1933 and destroy their distillery.

Tying their brand new rum to a spiritual home, the Arechabala's establish in the following year (1935) the Havana Club bar at the Plaza de la Cathedral in Havana.

And yet through it all the Arechabala family persisted in growing their business and engaged in much philanthropy. When it was announced that Prohibition was over, the Arechabala family would decide to quickly rebuild their distillery so that they could launch the Havana Club brand of rums into the US in 1934, and managed to do so just months after Prohibition's repeal. This would of course ultimately become a huge success. It is thus the La Vizcaya distillery that it is believed that a number of these ultra-aged Cuban rums that have recently shown up come from!

Castro Redefined The Cuban Rum Game

Yet, great changes were afoot. The young and charismatic revolutionary that was Fidel Castro (with the help of course of Che Guevara) would in 1959 topple the US-backed leader, Fulgencio Batista, and in so doing, nationalise whatever was deemed important to the state under the banner of bringing these economic engines back into the ownership of the Cuban people. And so circling back to the rums we've been seeing get released by a handful of European bottlers, a number of them that have inspired greater fascination are those sporting a pre-1959 vintage, making them rums distilled pre-Castro. Now this matters because Castro would nationalise all of the country's rum distilleries, with in particular the big ones at the time being Bacardi, Havana Club, Matusalem, which would see great upheaval at these distilleries that would also mean that rum-making there would never be the same again.

Rum, or ron, had become a matter of national identity and Castro sought to return it to the people.

As Castro saw great importance in the country's rum distilleries, they would thus become the target for nationalisation (and without compensation), with their families forced into exile. Castro had outlawed private assets and whilst some of the families behind these distilleries had supported the revolution, this was a turn of events that they likely had not expected. Some like Bacardi had been shrewd in diversifying their rum production, and had by the time of nationalisation already expanded their rum-making to Puerto Rico and Mexico, the former of which became a safe haven for many Cuban distillers. And so whilst nationalisation marked the end of the rum-making endeavours of many of Cuba's smaller distilleries, both Bacardi and Ron Matusalem would find a new home in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic respectively, relocating as much of their trademarks, assets and recipes over (Bacardi eventually settled on the Bermuda as its headquarters). And thus even till this day, a number of Cuban brands of rums are in fact produced in Puerto Rico! 

Of the big three, the remaining brand that was not able to relocate was thus Havana Club. Knowing full well that the Arechabala's did not have existing capacity to produce rums outside of Cuba and thus was unlikely to be able to revive a competing brand, the Castro government would heavily focus on continuing to produce and market the brand, even going so far as to outrightly call it a "national jewel". With even some family members imprisoned, the remaining Arechabala's fled to the US and Spain, and would eventually in 1994 sell the family's recipe for Havana Club to Bacardi, where the brand is produced today in Puerto Rico. The Cuban government would in 1977 move production of Havana Club to a new distillery in Santa Cruz del Norte.

Why's There Two Havana Club's? And What Does US President JFK Have To Do With It?

Now here's where it gets rather thorny - with the Castro government seizing these rum distilleries and forcing their owners to flee, with some relocating and reviving their brands from the likes of Puerto Rico, what's resulted is a trademark nightmare for the ages! Most contentious of all is unquestionably Havana Club. The Castro government would set up numerous state owned companies which would now take over production and sales at these rum distilleries, creating a sort of internal competition between state owned companies where the distilleries have been divvied up - Cuba Ron S.A. remains the most dominant, holding Havana Club, Santiago de Cuba, Cubay and Varadero in its portfolio, whilst another prominent state owned rum company is that of Tecnoazucar. And so whilst the likes of Bacardi and Ron Matusalem were able to successfully separate themselves from Cuba with little duplication and fully preserving their sovereignty, others like Ron Santiago de Cuba and Havana Club would continue to be made in Cuba, the latter of the two now made in both Cuba and Puerto Rico, by two separate and competing entities. In 1993, just a year before Bacardi would acquire the Arechabala recipe for Havana Club, the state entity Cuba Ron S.A. would enter into a 50:50 joint venture with French alcoholic drinks giant Pernod Ricard to help distribute the made-in-Cuba Havana Club.

One JFK, two Havana Club's.

As a result of US President John F. Kennedy's famous trade embargo on Cuba in 1962 (where the US President made sure to order 1,200 Cuban cigars just hours before making them illegal), Cuba was thus not allowed to sell its rums to the US (only most recently eased by US President Obama in 2015) - the result of which is that the made-in-Cuba Havana Club (from Cuba Ron S.A. and Pernod Ricard) is sold all around the world except the US, whilst the made-in-Puerto Rico Havana Club (from Bacardi) is sold only in the US. Without getting into the legal battle between the two entities that is still ongoing till this day, there are thus as it stands two Havana Club's made by two competing entities in two different countries, separated by a US embargo signed in 1962. These two perfectly fitted spheres thus means that whilst Havana Club is distributed around the world, one does have to be mindful as to which Havana Club they're enjoying (a head-to-head comparison has therefore been a popular topic for many a rum maniacs).

A Legendary Bottler Reminisces

Now that we understand rather comprehensively the story of Cuba's rons, it's time we head back to the bottle at hand. Whilst we don't have any might light into who's made this rum - the rumour being that it was from the La Vizcaya distillery in Cuba that produced Havana Club, and if so still begs the question of why parcels of the rum were left on the island for over 70 years up until recently. Were they only recently discovered? Or perhaps they belonged to a private buyer who stashed them away? 

Velier's Luca Gargano presenting the Cabeza Llena.

Regardless, Luca Gargano, the chief of Velier (who bottled this Cuban rum), had this to say about finding the Cabeza Llena,

"Dear friends, I am a nomad among the fire. Some might think it's just marketing but I have truly been a nomad among the fire for a long time. Since I was 18, I have travelled the Caribbean, always with the spirit of finding something special. Twenty, twenty-five, thirty years ago, it was easier, wasn't it? It was a territory to explore and when you arrive in unexplored territory, you can find fruit under the trees. Today, it is more difficult..."

As a little segue, for that reason, I've always believed that Velier truly embodies what it means to be a bottler - that without producing its own spirits (although there are a few Velier projects that have seen Velier producing rums as well, although they remain the minority of Velier's rum portfolio), the primary value that a bottler brings is to scour the world in search of unique spirits, or to work with producers to create something beyond that which already exists. If the Cabeza Llena (and the Hoy Como Ayer, as well as the recently debuted Hampden 1959 also from Velier from just this past two years) doesn't prove that Velier is amongst the greatest of bottlers, well, then I don't know what cuts it! 

Madame Aconcha.

Finally, just to wrap up, Luca also further expanded on how LM&V (La Maison & Velier) had recently found a parcel of pre-Castro rums which they had tasted and found to be exceptional, leading to them deciding to bottle a small quantity - elsewhere it's further stated by LM&V that they've put the rum through radiocarbon analysis which confirmed a distillation prior to 1955, which is again remarkable when you consider that the angel's share in Cuba is around 8% per year. In any case, Luca mentions that they had purchased paintings from one Madame Aconcha, an 83 year old Cuban artist who's lived in Paris for a long time now (born in 1946 in Havana and raised in a family of designers and craftsmen, with a close relationship to her uncle, a Santeria priest of the Yoruba cult of Orisha deities, whose spiritual elements have deeply influenced her art), and hence has gone on to name this series of ultra-aged Cuban rums the Aconcha series. He also mentions that LM&V is constantly looking for masters in their field and masters of their product, and bringing that to its fans. Finally, he alludes to how this rum comes from a Cuba that no longer exists, before cars, pollution, GPS,... "a world that has almost disappeared", and that this is what is fantastic about spirits, their ability to allow us to go back in time and experience a particular moment.

Now, whilst the Hoy Como Ayer bottling was a combination of over 50 casks of rums of the same age (due to the angel's share over such an extended period of ageing), it seems that the Cabeza Llena (translated as "big head", in reference to someone who has a head full of ideas and thoughts; the painting is a self-portrait of Madame Aconcha) comes from but a single cask, which was bottled at cask strength.

PS. Big shoutout to Whisky Live Singapore 2025 where we got a chance to try this incredibly rare and historic rum - we might not know where it's from, but we certainly know where you can try it! Whisky Live Singapore is consistently bringing to not just the country but really the entire region, the best in spirits from each year's collection, many of which have been bottled specially for La Maison du Whisky, who organises the must-go event of the year. This obviously came from the VIP section, which tells you much about the sort of stuff you can expect as a VIP ticket holder as well! So set your calendars for Whisky Live Singapore 2026, because you know it's going to be good! And if you missed Whisky Live Singapore 2025, you can find this over at their Robertson Quay bar!

Let's go!

Rum Review: Velier Cabeza Llena Cuba 1948, 49.1% ABV

Distilled in 1948 and bottled in 2025, this single cask is thus 77 years old!

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Amber

Aroma: It opens mellow yet richly and intensely aromatic, filled in with a generous serving of Demerara sugar, before then easing up to showcase fruity tones of candied black grapes, prunes and plums. There's a touch of glueyness, which is to be expected, and then continues on to develop equally rich sweet herbal aromatics of cough syrup, just a tinge of the medicinal. It's beguiling and alluring, pulling you in with such a great depth of richness to its bouquet.

Taste: Medium-bodied, there's an immediate rush of heaps of black Kyoho grapes, backed by warmer, richer tones of brown sugar. Accents of that sweet herbal cough syrup, with that tinge of medicinal bitterness. It's concentrated and luscious, with more stewed plums and prunes that show up with time. A gentle dusting of cocoa powder, tobacco, leather and baking spice rounds it out, yet delicate enough that the bounties of fruits still shine through, juicy and vibrant.

Finish: More of that prunes, plums and raisins, here leaning more towards dried fruit. There's a touch of rancio, of those dried sour plums, giving a slight mustiness of bags of sundried fruit. It's rich and lush through the finish, still very much and persistently so, fruit driven, with all these manners of candied fruit (tanghulu), canvassed by depths of brown sugar and sweet herbal undertones.

My Thoughts

Forget light and easygoing, this was incredibly rich and luscious, and at the same time still so vibrant and fresh! The aromas immediately took me away, intensely perfumed and with this beguiling depth, sensual as it draws you in into its depths. It almost feels like you're walking through the darkness of hallways and curtains, as you follow the music as it grows more lively, only to peel away that final curtain and see the jazz club burst with life! In the same sense, it's these rich and warm tones of brown sugar, with wafts of herbal accents, that then wrap around this bounty of candied dark fruit! There's such a beautiful contrast between the warmth of the earthiness and the glistening, crystalline brightness of the candied fruit. On the palate, it's more of the same, here with alittle more tertiary earthiness of cocoa powder, tobacco, leather, and baking spices subtly spicing the body, and yet undeniably its the sweet black grapes that are just bursting forth with juiciness.

The finish sees some development into alittle more rancio, more bags of dried fruit carrying some of that mustiness evoking some sort of antiquity and almost a sense of discovery. It persists in its richness and lusciousness, still bringing along all of that bounty of candied fruit, as always backed up by warm and herbal tones of brown sugar and eucalyptus.

This was such an incredible experience, and really such a wonder! Even with 77 years in oak, it's still so bold and vibrant, so full of life, energy and intensity. Yet at the same time, it still carries with it that signature Cuban delicate lightness, where even though it's rich and concentrated, it never weighs heavy, almost gliding across the nose and palate with this waxiness, glistening and crystalline. I'm not sure if there's more in store in the Aconcha series, but I sure do hope so! Because this has only sparked my intrigue for more.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot