Black Tot launches Historic Solera Rum

Black Tot Rum is unveiling a brand-new permanent addition to its range with Black Tot Historic Solera Rum: an authentic solera-aged blend of rums from Guyana, Barbados, and Jamaica. With this new expression, Black Tot champions this traditional blending method to honour the sherry bodegas from which their historic solera casks originated. This is the first time a blend of rums from these countries has been produced using a traditional solera process.

Oliver Chilton, Master Blender of Black Tot Rum, says of the release: "Historic Solera started life as a passion project. We sought to elevate our Black Tot rum blend with the richer, dark fruit notes associated with sherry, but traditional finishing methods fell short. After visiting Jerez, I fell in love with solera blending and the regular movement between the layers helped create consistency."

In a traditional solera, the magic lies in blending spirits of various ages in a tiered barrel-ageing process – for Black Tot Historic Solera, this is 3-tiered. At each tier, younger rum interacts with the concentrated older rums left in the barrel to acquire richer characteristics. This continuous marriage results in an expression that showcases remarkable depth of character and offers consistency. This is a process that cannot be replicated using seasoned casks or vatting.

Black Tot Historic Solera begins with Black Tot Finest Caribbean rum, which is aged up to two years in first-fill Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry butts before entering the 3-tier solera system.

The rum is then aged for one year in each tier before being added to the subsequent tier. When taking from the final tier, the result is a rich and decadent rum that displays notes of figs and plums, along with chocolate, warming winter spices, and lightly roasted coffee. The finish is long with charred citrus zest that develops into ripe tropical fruits.

"We've achieved a seamless integration of flavours. I am so pleased with what we have created in Historic Solera and look forward to sharing it with the world," says Chilton.

Black Tot Historic Solera Rum (RRP £64.95, 46.2%) is a permanent addition to the range and will be available at selected retailers from late October.