Experience the Spanish-style Caribbean spirit in the heart of Spain with our exclusive distillery tours.
Many people associate rum with islands in the Caribbean, but Spain’s history is deeply rooted in the world of rum making. Join Wine Paths on a luxury distillery tour and taste the Spanish-style spirit with fantastic food and culture to complete your experience.
Our distillery visits will give you an insider look into the art of rum and distilled spirits. Learn more about the history of how distilleries came about. Discover the different styles of rum to suit your palate, and have expert guidance on how to taste your spirit in the best way. We take an insightful approach to distillery visits to ensure that they are both fun and educational, appealing to every type of drinker. Whether you are a rum aficionado or a beginner, our rum tours are exciting and full of fascinating history, culture and delicious tasting opportunities.
Taste rum like you’ve never tasted before, and step into the world of distilleries where everyone’s favorite molasses liquor is blended to perfection.
Alcohol distilling has a rich and interesting history in Spain, and there are a number of spirits being made in the country today. One of the oldest distilleries, located in Andalusia, produces Anís, a distinct and flavorful spirit made from aniseed. There’s also a ‘Sherry Triangle’, a region in Spain that produces sherry and Brandy de Jerez.
Menorca is famous for producing Gin de Menorca, gin that has been inspired by the British. Then there’s Ron de Motril, a tasty rum made also in Andalusia. This is a pale rum was brought to market by Francisco Montero Martín, and is made with molasses, like all the Spanish-style rums made in the Caribbean. Although sugarcane is no longer grown in Spain, production of Ron de Motril has remained the same and sugarcane is now imported from Mexico, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
Close to the capital, the Bacardi distillery is perhaps the best known around the world. The Bacardi label, which is headquartered in Puerto Rico, is recognized across the globe and in every language.
A handful of whisky distilleries exist in Spain too, such as Destilerias del Penedes and Destilerias Liber, and these take inspiration from the Scottish variety.
Rum is the “noble spirit” of the Caribbean, and rum production still happens primarily on islands such as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The history of Caribbean rum goes all the way back to the plantation days, when slaves used molasses (the by-product of sugarcane) to make alcohol. They created the fermentation and distillation processes that made what we all know as rum today. But the story doesn’t start or end there.
Distillation was first developed by the Ancient Greeks in the first few centuries AD, and back then distilling was a process used for alchemy. Arabic regions also starting developing their own versions of the process, and it is thanks to the Arabs that the process first arrived in Spain. When the Moors invaded, they brought over a copper still for making medicines and perfumes. At this point, the Spanish were growing grapes in earnest and were focused on wine-making. But as time passed, they began to experiment with alcohol distillation in the copper stills, and this is how Spanish spirits and liquors were born.
So even long before rum, distillation was being practiced by the Spanish. Some of the first Spanish spirits to be made were distilled from grapes. The oldest liquor in Spain is ‘Licor de Orujo’, and the art of distilling wine was also popular throughout history, giving rise to Spanish brandy.
In terms of Spain’s history with rum distilling, it’s important to remember that Spain was responsible for providing the first sugar cane to the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus arrived on Caribbean shores in 1493 during his second visit, and had brought with him some sugar cane plants from the Canary Islands. This was later harvested, creating the plantations and a huge industry that followed.
Sugar cane is still grown in some parts of the Canary Islands, and it was only a few short decades ago when it was still readily available in the south of Spain.
On our distillery tours, you will get a chance to find out more about your favorite spirit. From a brief history lesson to getting up close to the stills and walking through the distillation rooms, you’ll get to know everything about Spanish rum.
Some venues will offer guided tours, while others may be self-guided. But either way, there will be walking involved, so comfortable footwear is a must. It’s also important to remember that you will be entering into working distilleries in some cases, so not all rooms will be temperature controlled. There are also some venues that are not working distilleries, which means they will be more of a museum.
A lot of distillery visits will include a tasting experience at the end or a mixology class, so you’ll be able to try the spirits for yourself.
Join Wine Paths on a luxury distillery holiday in Spain. Home to delicious rum that has deep connections with the Caribbean, this is a fantastic place to learn more about the world’s favorite sweet spirit. When it comes to rum, colonial history plays an important role and today there are French-style rums, British-style rums and Spanish-style rums.
Our distillery tours will help you discover the unique Spanish-style rums, produced in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Known to have a mild and light character, it’s a refined style of rum that many people enjoy.
One of our tours includes Casa Bacardi in Stiges. Rum enthusiasts will be able to enjoy a guided discovery tour (in English, Spanish or Catalan) to learn more about the brand, its unique bat logo, the distilling process, and the ageing process that happens in American oak barrels. At the Bacardi Lounge, you’ll be able to sample three cocktails and you’ll even get to make your own classic Mojito cocktail.
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