Up until the 1870s, Scotch whisky was not considered a premium whisky. It was far from being a quality whisky, for which reason the Americans decided to adopt the term “whiskey” to identify its best quality whisky.

Today, the difference lies in the way it is prepared. In Scotland, malted barley and peat are used, while throughout the rest of the world peat is not used and very few places malt barley. Of course, since the 1870s things have changed greatly and, for some time now, Scotch, Irish and even English whiskies have been ranked among the world’s best in top competitions. It’s important to note that Japanese whiskies are gaining followers and, in 2018, a Japanese whisky was named the winner of the prestigious World Whiskies Awards 2018 as the best Single Malt in the World’s Best Single Malt category. The Conde Lumar whisky has Scottish origins; this whisky was chosen from Conde Lumar’s most premium whiskies for having been carefully distilled in small copper pot stills via a long, costly, discontinuous distillation process. Artisanal aging in American oak barrels and then Spanish oak barrels guarantees a different, top-quality, luxury whisky with unique scents, flavours and notes that make it enjoyable neat or on the rocks.

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Although providing an exhaustive ranking of rums is too large a task, a distinction must be made between types of rum based on the raw material used:

• “Agricultural rum” (rhum agricole) is rum made from pure sugarcane honey, from sugarcane juice. Rums that fall under this category are considered the best by specialists.
• “Industrial rum” is rum made from molasses, which is a by-product of the sugar production process.

If we consider rum’s colonial history, it can be classified according to its origins with rums from the old Spanish, French or British colonies, which has resulted in three major schools of rum emerging over the years:

• The Spanish school: these include Dominican, Venezuelan, Colombian, Cuban, Puerto Rican and Guatemalan rums. They are aged using the Jerez “criaderas and soleras” system. Logically, these are the most widely sold rums in Spain.
• The French school: the main countries to produce rum in this category are French Guiana, Martinique, Haiti, Guadeloupe and Mauritius. These rums are aged using the “ullage” system.
• The British school: its main rum-producing countries include Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Virgin Islands. Both static aging and aging using the “criaderas and soleras” system are used.

From these three schools, other more specific varieties of rum are born: white, black, golden, aged, old, spiced, sweet, light, ‘escarchado’, honey… But the most notable of all is “premium rum”, which is the best and most special.

The top rum brands select their best rums with the aim of obtaining a premium rum. Today, many people ask, “What is a premium rum?” Premium rums are those that have been produced using the best raw materials in line with the highest quality standards.

Conde Lumar’s rum is an XO Premium Rum of Dominican origin; an aged rum that has been produced using the best raw material, pure sugarcane honey, which has not had the natural sugars of the sugarcane extracted from it. It was uniquely aged: firstly in an American oak barrel and then in Spanish oak barrels that previously stored Pedro Ximenez sherry.

This long work process culminates in a sweet, pure, powerful rum brimming with caramelised nuances. It has an intense, complex and fruity flavour containing notes of vanilla, cocoa, toasted oak, burned sugar, toasted nuts and orange peel.

It’s the perfect rum, with a memorable, tremendously tempting aftertaste.

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One of the main causes of this dizzying increase in demand is that the whiskies being produced are better, more special and more premium.

Although there is the mistaken belief that a whisky is better the longer it has remained in a barrel, it is true that over time the barrel provides colour and certain flavours but there will come a moment when the wood cannot provide more flavour or notes, meaning it has been exhausted.

The result is distilleries producing better quality whiskies in a shorter space of time. This is only possible with improved distillation, better wood, and oak toasting and smoking processes.

Whiskies’ different types or classes has seen the best brands of whisky competing in special categories, including “Best Single Malt”,  “Best Bourbon”, “Best Single Cask Single Malt” and “Best Blended Limited Release Whisky”.

The world’s most expensive whiskies have become an object of desire and it is not uncommon to find premium whiskies at auction or even in private whisky collections. It is often very difficult to find a limited edition of a certain whisky on the market owing to high demand and the rising value of premium brands of whisky. This specialisation has enabled consumers to employ whisky as the perfect gift: it is a special, distinctive, quality – and sometimes luxury – product. Buying whisky is in fashion and gifting whisky is a safe bet.

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To produce the best blue, pink or violet gin, we start with a quality juniper berry that has been meticulously selected, and is then mashed in pure alcohol using artisanal techniques.

The still is the distinctive element in distillation. Our traditional copper stills, which date back to the beginning of the 19th century, distil at a low temperature and they act as an excellent purifier to get the best out of distillation. We still the alcohol five times to obtain optimal purity, therefore ensuring that the alcohol does not dominate the natural botanicals. Conde Lumar includes the entire concentration of distilled alcohol, meaning 40%. The company produces only 60 bottles per day and they are filled, labelled, and the gold subsequently added, by hand.

The world’s biggest gin brands perform a maximum of three distillations. In their factories they use a large fractioning column that allows them to achieve large production: they can bottle up to 5,000 bottles each day. They include artificial botanicals at the expense of scent and flavour, and they only contribute 2% of the alcohol distilled to their bottles.

La entrada What is a premium gin? se publicó primero en Conde Lumar.