During the harvest period, freshly cut sugar cane arrives daily at the distillery mill.. It is time to select it, classify it, and pass it, without waiting, through the old mechanical mill from which all the sweet juice, also known as guarapo, is extracted. En In the milling process, the fresh juice is separated from the bagasse, -an organic residue used by local farmers to fertilise their plantations-. In this process only the juice from the first press is used, resulting in rums with much richer aromatic profiles compared to other, industrially produced rums.

In the controlled fermentation process, which is carried out manually and can take up to 30 hours, the sugars in the cane juice are slowly converted into alcohol by the propagation of the yeast. The non-use of chemical additives ensures that all the natural properties of the cane juice remain intact.

It is almost a century since the first production of Aldea rum, and today it is still distilled in the same way as our ancestors did: directly from the cane juice, over a wood fire controlled manually by our master distiller, and using the original still that Mr. Manuel Quevedo Alemán ordered to be built in 1936, which was one of the first distilling columns manufactured by Egrott (France). In 2021 a new still was built by hand, replicating the original, but increasing its size and distilling capacity. Today, the production of Aldea rum alternates between the two distilling columns.
Distilling directly from the guarapo allows our rums to maintain the flavour, aroma and all the goodness of the freshly cut sugar cane, resulting in the aromatic aguardientes that will be the base of our rums.

The casks of different origins and toasting levels rest peacefully in the darkness of our cellar awaiting the eaux-de-vie of the new vintage. The maturation process requires patience and great skill. These eaux-de-vie will spend between six months and thirty years maturing in one of the family’s 500 casks. Once the liquids arrive at the bodega, the rum master, José Quevedo, personally and periodically tastes them from the casks to determine the right moment to bottle or blend with other rums to further evolve into rums of the older varieties. Rum, especially cask-aged rum, is a living thing. Humidity, light, temperature, oxygen, the salinity of the environment… an infinite number of factors influence a rum preserved in wood, to such an extent that the liquids never cease to evolve. And this is precisely one of the secrets of Aldea rum: the location of the distillery and the salinity of the environment give our aged rums a slight briny touch.

The waters of La Palma are highly prized in the archipelago and the Marcos y Cordero spring is one of the most important and hidden natural springs on the islands. This is the source of the water used to hidration the rums produced in our distillery to their bottling strength. Once diluted, the rums rest again, stored and immobile, for a minimum of two months to achieve a perfect integration of the two elements – the aguardiente and the spring water of Marcos y Cordero – in a single liquid: a handcrafted rum, of exceptional quality and made strictly according to the standards set by the founder of Destilerías Aldea.