Alambique Serrano "Cartier 30" Rum 700ml
Alambique Serrano Cartier 30 comes from the Krassel family distillery in Santa María Tlalixtac, deep in Oaxaca's mountainous Cañada region. The family's rum tradition began when German immigrant Max Krassel settled in Oaxaca in 1930 and learned the region's aguardiente distillation methods, eventually building his own custom still. Today his grandsons Rommel, Axel, and William Krassel run the operation, and unlike the brand's barrel-aged Alambique Serrano line, Cartier 30 is bottled straight off the still.
The rum is distilled from organic Java sugarcane hand-harvested from hillsides as high as 4,000 feet above sea level, milled the same day and fermented with ambient yeast before running through the family's German-designed column still, engineered to produce no heads or tails during distillation. The spirit is bottled unaged at still strength, roughly 70% ABV, with no water, sugar, or color added. Its name comes from the old Cartier hydrometer scale once used locally, where a reading of "30" corresponds to that same high proof, historically the strength Oaxacans preferred when mixing the spirit with fresh cane juice.
The nose is pungent and vegetal, with mushroom, olive, brine, and mineral notes alongside grassy, peppery, and floral tones. On the palate, spice and citrus meet an earthy, agave-like character, finishing long with lingering minerality and orange peel.