I don’t know of many distilleries that move from one country to another. But when thinking of roving distilleries, a couple of famous ones come to mind. The Bacardi Family fled Cuba after Castro took control. Luckily they already had a distillery in Puerto Rico for tax reasons, so they moved the bulk of the operation there. Castro got to keep the original Bacardi distillery, where they now the Caney and Santiago Brands. Angostura Bitters started in Venezuela and moved to Trinidad.
Another distillery recently moved to Trinidad but this time from Guatemala, and that distillery was the makers of Zaya Gran Reserva Rum. Originally, the Zaya Gran Reserva Rum was blended, aged and distilled in Guatemala by Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala, the same company that distills Ron Zacapa and Ron Botran. The move to Trinidad allegedly resulted from the desire to continue to have sufficient quantities of rum to blend, bottle and sell. The Zaya Gran Reserva rum is a proprietary run blend, with Zaya blending three to five rums, which have been aged for a minimum of 12 years in oak barriques, that are then bottled and released to the public.
The Zaya Gran Reserva Rum is a lovely dark amber, light magahony color with aromas of molasses, vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, coconut, oak, orange peel and cocoa. On the palate, the Zaya is smooth with an almost oily textures and shows flavors of baked apple, baked pear, caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, sweet orange, cherry, coconut and oak.
The Zaya makes a nice sipping rum. But, I would also serve it in a Daiquiri or as one of the rums in a Mai Tai.
