Cabeza Llena Cuba 1948

Following Hoy como Ayer, which paid tribute to the watershed years of the revolution, this release references the opening of another chapter in Cuban history. The year is 1948: a time of contrasts when despite political instability, the island and its capital were the epicentre of undeniable cultural influence. Writers, artists, Hollywood stars, gangsters, and members of the local elite all rubbed shoulders in Havana’s most famous establishments.

This very old bottling, which Cuban artist Aconcha has poetically named after her piece Cabeza Llena, is shrouded in mystery. Although all trace of its distillery of origin has been lost over the long years it has spent ageing in Cuba’s tropical climate, a radiocarbon dating analysis—a process of measuring the radiation of the carbon-14 contained in organic matter—has confirmed that it was produced prior to 1955.

In those days, Cuban rum production was dominated by great old houses—Bacardi, Ron Matusalem, and Arechabala (now Havana Club), founded between 1860 and 1880—and some more recent distilleries, such as Ron Perla del Norte which opened in the 1930s or 1940s. Other, smaller distilleries also operated in the shadow of these export giants, including Ron Vayadero, Ron Caney, and Casa Guaray, with some being attached to local sugarcane farms.

A true piece of history, Cabeza Llena - Cuba 1948 is likely one of the last bottlings of pre-revolutionary Cuban rum.