During a typical morning at Hacienda Santa Ana in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, it’s common to witness several events. The Ron del Barrlito’s primary cooper is often there, working on barrels or restoring vintage sherry casks—tasks he has performed daily for the past 57 years. The master blender could be found sampling rum from sherry casks aged 3 to 40 years, meticulously gauging their maturation to plan for future product blends. Greater Antillean Grackles, small groups of dusky and garrulous birds, flutter around, alighting on the age-old windmill or the antique truck previously used for rum distribution. With the serene tropical climate sitting in the mid-80s even during winter mornings, it’s easy to lose track of the year this scene exists in. Hacienda Santa Ana seems unchanged, as if frozen in time—a claim that very few modern distilleries could make.

One possible reason for this is the absence of a shiny, contemporary industrial column still anywhere on the site. Surprisingly, there’s no rum distillation happening here at all—the supply for Ron del Barrilito comes as a fairly neutral, unaged column still rum from the Dominican Republic, which then undergoes a process spanning several years to transform it into a unique product. This has been the case for 144 years, with the product remarkably identical to the company’s first rum which was sold back in 1880.

Such consistency in production philosophy is often viewed as unusual, or even foreign, in today’s spirited world which is characterized by the continuous introduction of new products that are quickly discarded or reinvented. However, Ron del Barrilito has maintained just one primary rum product (3 Stars) during its 144-year existence, a decision reflecting the singular focus of its founder, Pedro Fernández, whose family has managed the brand for over a century.

The land where Ron del Barrilito is produced, Hacienda Santa Ana, has been in the Fernandez family since 1787 when Fernando Fernandez, the family patriarch, came from Spain. Initially, the family harvested sugar cane, long before they ventured into rum production. This is no longer the case as the sugar cane industry in Puerto Rico has significantly dwindled. The family’s interest in distilled spirits started when Pedro Fernández, Fernando Fernández’s grandson, studied engineering in France in the 1860s.

Pedro discovered the artful production of French brandy and cognac with a deep impression. Upon returning to Puerto Rico, he brought back the knowledge he gained, applying it to rum, the local readily available spirit. Aging large amounts of rum using exclusively Spanish sherry casks, he created a blend with a small portion of stone fruit and spice macerated rum. After a decade of iteration, he commercialized his product under the name Ron del Barrilito.

The flagship product today is Ron del Barrilito Three Stars, comprised of a blend of column still rums aged from 6-10 years entirely in former oloroso sherry casks and gently fortified with macerated rum rested on a secret array of local fruits and spices. The expectation may be to label Ron del Barrilito as “spiced rum,” but in reality, this component introduces a subtle touch to the overall flavor profile, more of an enhancement than a headline. The uniqueness of the rum lies in its refined balance between casks of varying ages, each of which experiences its own unique journey aging in the tropical heat of Hacienda Santa Ana’s warehouses.

The product range of Ron del Barrilito remained sole for the first 40 years until the 1920 enactment of Prohibition in the U.S brought local rum production to halt for the next 13 years. Upon lifting the probation, this gap presented a substantial challenge for Ron del Barrilito due to the long production process of their 6-10 year old product. It paved the way for the introduction of a second Ron del Barrilito product, 2 Stars, a short-aged 3-5-year-old blend.

The introduction of 2 Stars helped restore product availability albeit sooner than the standard period. Still, Pedro Fernández’s unwavering quality standards and preference for Old World technique prevailed. The company could have ventured into selling unaged white rum immediately after prohibition, but they held onto their unique style of maturation. Edmundo Fernández, was known for his inexorable compliance with the Barrilito tradition as well as his fiercely independent streak. In 1952, Edmundo marked a barrel, referred to as La Doña, to be opened and shared with the town only when Puerto Rico attains independence from the U.S. The barrel remains unopened 72 years later, adding a silent testimony to the company’s hopeful outlook and national pride.

The story of Ron del Barrilito, a family-run business that has been in operation for about a century and a half, is fascinating. The business was established during the Wild West epoch when the U.S. was comprised of 38 states. Fast forward to the 2010s and fifth and sixth generation members of the Fernández family were still upholding the tradition. However, modern challenges and an absence of apparent successors threatened the continuation of rum production at Hacienda Santa Ana.

Ron del Barrilito did not function as a standard profit-making business all those years; it was more an artisanal venture, an expression of the creator’s love for rum. Maintaining the quality of their product was paramount, not the quantity sold or brand growth. Yearly production of Ron del Barrilito 2 Stars and 3 Stars seesawed between 5,000 cases to 15,000. The irregular production led to erratic distribution covering the Caribbean, Mexico, and the U.S. Over time, this unintentionally created an enigmatic aura around the brand while also sparking many misconceptions. Nevertheless, Ron del Barrilito remained significantly a passion project.

However, deterioration of the hacienda began to undermine the operations. At the time, “Don Fernando” Fernández was contemplating the viability of the business, even considering the closure or sale of Ron del Barrilito. This was the first time since the Prohibition that the business’ sustainability was at stake.

In this scenario, Joaquin Bacardi of Bacardi Ltd. family purchased Edmundo B. Fernández Inc. along with several Puerto Rican investors in 2017 to preserve its heritage. Interestingly, the sprawling Bacardi distillery is stationed just seven miles away from the humble Hacienda Santa Ana. However, the Bacardi lineage had no intention of integrating Ron del Barrilito into their global conglomerate. Instead, they are committed to modernizing and extending the Hacienda Santa Ana establishments without compromising Pedro Fernández’s unique method and independence. The management has also transitioned to the next generation of Bacardis with Eduardo and Guillermo, Joaquin Bacardi’s sons, assuming pivotal roles in business strategy and production. Guillermo, notably, is being trained under Master Blender Luis Planas, presumably to inherit the crucial blending tasks of 3 Stars.

And in truth, the Bacardi transition most likely came along at exactly the right time for Ron del Barrilito, as the repairs and improvements to the campus most likely helped the facility to survive the devastation of Hurricane Maria in late 2017, an event that might otherwise have spelled the end for the brand. Now possessing a new, $2 million visitor’s center that has already welcomed tens of thousands of guests since it opened in 2019, Ron del Barrilito is finally expanding production (40,000 cases in 2023), solidifying its foreign export markets, and generally experiencing a revitalized status as one of Puerto Rico’s most beloved homegrown brands. Walk the streets of San Juan, dip into its bars, and you will see it displayed in places of honor, ready for use in its signature rum old fashioned.

At the same time, the brand has also released its first two new products since the 1930s, the ultra-limited Four Stars and Five Stars–not a cynical ploy for publicity or revenue, but a necessary move to utilize many of the hacienda’s older casks that had been left aging for decades without any intended destination, in danger of being altogether wasted. Ironically, these brands couldn’t exist at all today without some level of oversight having occurred in the past–casks of Ron del Barrilito were never technically meant to have been aging in the warehouses for 35 years, but they now make up the limited ration of Five Stars that exists in the world. Nor will the company be able to easily produce more Four Stars or Five Stars once these bottles are gone–thanks to the lag in production, once these are gone the brands will effectively go into hibernation, potentially for decades. It will be a special day for the company when the segunda edición finally arrives.

Visiting Puerto Rico, one can’t help but note that it is inherently a land of contrasts, with a spirit equally divided among the English and Spanish-speaking worlds. Gas stations sell fuel by the liter, but markets sell milk by the gallon. Speedometers display velocity in miles per hour, but distances are measured in kilometers. It’s fitting that in this place, Ron del Barrilito spends 144 years making what many consider the best rum on the island, but never grows larger than a modest family operation. Until now, that is–in 2024 and beyond, the world will be waking up to the beauty of Pedro Fernández’s dream in 1880. If you want to taste what they were drinking then, you only have to open a bottle of Ron del Barrilito 3 Stars. Here’s to another century of rum.

Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.

GET PASTE RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX

The best music, movies, TV, books, comedy and more.