Altitude Adjustment: Visiting Antigua, home of a Guatemalan rum that is aged in the clouds

In stark contrast to Singapore’s vibrant, fast-paced energy, Guatemala invites one to slow down, where the ticking seconds hand of our timepiece fades into insignificance. In the country’s volcanic highlands—a full 2,300m closer to heaven than most spirits dare to venture—we experience first-hand that time doesn’t merely pass, it undergoes a profound metamorphosis. And so, evidently, does its prized rum. Winding through Antigua’s cobblestoned streets, past crumbling cathedrals, bright-coloured houses and markets bursting with life, it becomes increasingly clear as to why a true understanding of the Guatemalan spirit demands experiencing its birthplace.

Churches and faithful households within the ancient city are all adorned with violet-hued flags, indicating the significance of religion and worship as the holy week of Easter is just around the corner. But more than anything, the Guatemalan people, with their wrinkled but no less inviting smiles, are honest folk, challenged by hard times but never relenting. The same tenacity and grit could easily be applied to describe Lorena Vásquez.

Born in Nicaragua, Vásquez became Ron Zacapa’s master blender in 1984 and very swiftly stood out in the male-dominated world of spirits. For over four decades, the chemical engineer-turned-sensory sorceress, armed with her firecracker personality, defied not just gender expectations but the conventions of rum-making itself. With her at the helm, Ron Zacapa sets its sights on Asia’s most sophisticated markets, while Vásquez honours the spirit of Guatemala and the passionate men and women who craft it.

In case you missed it: How Lorena Vásquez, Ron Zacapa’s master blender, paved the way for women in the industry one drink at a time

Roaming the verdant grounds of Finca El Tempixque, a coffee plantation at the foot of the Volcán de Agua, which began cultivating in 1890, we had an epiphany that the same volcanic terroir that produces some of the country’s legendary coffee beans also provides the ideal ageing environment for the finest Ron Zacapa rums. This peculiarly obvious deuce of coffee and rum shares not just geography but destiny as the connection becomes unmistakable. Guatemala may be renowned for its coffee beans, but while the Caribbean has claimed rum-crafting as birthright, the Guatemalans have reimagined with audacity.

A curated rum blending experience awaits at Villa Bokéh, a lavish hideaway nestled on the fringes of Antigua. Shedding light on the production of Ron Zacapa rums, Vásquez begins by emphasising the importance of only using the first press of virgin sugar cane harvested from mineral-rich volcanic soil—and never molasses. A strain of yeast derived from pineapples introduces fermentation, its starch crucial for preserving aromatics during distillation. Unlike its competitors, Ron Zacapa employs slow single-column copper distillation that captures essences other methods usually relinquish. The result is a sweeter, weightier, yet smoother rum. 

The magic continues at House Above the Clouds, Ron Zacapa’s ageing facility sequestered away in the highlands of Quetzaltenango at an altitude of 2,300m above sea level. There is something subversive about dedicating thousands of square metres of highland real estate solely to the pursuit of flavour. For fine spirit collectors in Singapore and Hong Kong, who are all too familiar with space commanding astronomical premiums, it screams luxury most defiantly and deliberately.

Amid the clouds, sistema solera ageing is practised, filtering rums from barrel to barrel, each with varying degrees of toast, extracting complex flavours to birth its signature rums. Vásquez delves into ageing in high altitudes, where the climate is cooler and the air thinner, explaining that it decelerates ageing as opposed to ageing at sea level, where it is warmer and the air pressure is lower.

The opportunity to create our very own expression soon begins. Under expert guidance, we soak up the secrets to manipulating complex flavour profiles while harmonising diversity, using rums finished in casks that once cradled American whiskey, Oloroso sherry, Pedro Ximénez wines and French cognac. This ticket to Vásquez’s playground, where casks are her colours, and the rums in them are her canvas, transforms our relationship with the spirit entirely.

At a vertical tasting of Ron Zacapa’s core expressions, we are bemused by how Guatemalan altitude transforms traditional rum characteristics into something more esoteric. It is as if the rums surrendered to the languid passage of time, giving meaning to unhurried luxury and a counterbalance to our perpetually accelerating existence. For the uninitiated, the Zacapa 23 opens with honeyed butterscotch, spiced oak and toasted nuts before revealing a full-bodied backbone of dried fruits and coffee. The XO, however, reveals itself in waves, first caramelised banana, then leather-bound books and cloves, followed by a beautiful warmth of cinnamon-dusted cocoa.

Beyond the amber nectar, perhaps the most visually arresting element on a Ron Zacapa bottle is the petate band, a handwoven ring crafted using techniques passed down through generations of Mayan artisans. Our allergic response to convenient origin stories, where corporate interests and indigenous crafts seamlessly intersect, may be fuelled by cynicism. Yet, remarkably, this scepticism dissolves upon inspection. These aren’t mere decorative flourishes but a poignant reminder of a nation’s tumult and resilience.

In 1999, Zacapa quietly extended its hand to women from El Quiché, who were displaced by Guatemalan civil war conflicts, creating economic lifelines through ancestral craftsmanship. At the live weaving demonstration, the romance deepened when we learn of the artisans from Jocotán, whose agricultural livelihoods withered during catastrophic droughts, only to find salvation in the meticulous weaving of these bands.

Today, over 700 women, each emerging as the unexpected protagonists of their communities’ economic narratives, transform humble palm leaves into signifiers of authenticity that wrap around some of the world’s most coveted rums. It represents an ethical social impact that one can actually touch.

As we leave the volcanic sentinels and their slumbering treasures behind, we come to the realisation that Ron Zacapa’s best-quality isn’t its complexity or cultural narrative; in a progressively digital age where artificial intelligence reduces passions and livelihoods to mere milliseconds, the spirit epitomises unapologetic excellence that requires time, terroir, and the inimitable human touch. Now with every pour of Ron Zacapa in our glass, we sip unhurried, cherishing an experience that rewards patience in a world that has forgotten how to wait.

NOW READ

Tatler, Ron Zacapa and Volkswagen partner up for first-ever bar crawl

Johnnie Walker unveils Vault, an epoch for luxury blended Scotch whisky

Johnnie Walker drops the world’s lightest glass whisky bottle: the Blue Label Ultra