The hills around Ivoti are green in a way the rest of Brazil is not. German settlers arrived here in the 1800s, put up timber-framed houses and brought their copper with them. Weber Haus Black has spent three years in the kind of quiet that only exists between an oak cask and a piece of Brazilian bálsamo wood.
The expert's description
Weber Haus Black 3 year Organic Brazil Cachaca is an Organic Cachaca matured for two years in French oak casks and one year in Bálsamo casks, bottled at 40%.
Weber Haus sits in Ivoti in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, where the Weber family grows its own sugarcane organically. The cane is cut and pressed the same day, and it is the fresh juice that ferments. That is precisely where the line to rum is drawn, since rum is almost always built on molasses, a by-product of sugar refining. It is also why even an aged cachaca keeps a green, vegetal core no rum can imitate.
The cask history comes in two stages and explains the name. First two years in French oak, where the spirit picks up vanilla, pale caramel and a dry spice note. Then a year in casks of bálsamo, a Brazilian hardwood carrying an aromatic resin, which lays a sweet, almost balsamic tone over the oak and pulls the colour deep and dark. The pairing of French and Brazilian wood is what gives the bottle its double character.
The entire production is certified organic, from field to bottling. Weber Haus distils in copper pot stills in small volumes, and the house works systematically with different Brazilian timbers across its releases. Black is the most approachable of the dark ones, and it works both as a sipping spirit and as the base under a heavier Caipirinha.
Tasting notes
Nose
Vanilla and pale caramel report first. Then something green and juicy that points straight back at the sugarcane, with resin, toasted cashew and a trace of ginger sitting behind it.
Palate
Full and faintly oily. Cashew and vanilla carry the weight while black pepper and allspice cut across. The green cane note runs underneath the sweetness the whole way and stops it turning cloying.
Finish
Long and dry. Pepper hangs on alongside a resinous tone from the bálsamo wood, while the vanilla drops away fairly quickly. At the very end the wood stands alone.
Specifications
Name: Weber Haus Black 3 year Organic Brazil Cachaca 70 cl 40%
Distillery: Weber Haus
Region/Country: Ivoti, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Type: Organic Cachaca
Age: 3 years
ABV: 40%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: Two years in French oak casks and one year in Bálsamo casks
Distillation method: Copper pot distilled from freshly pressed sugarcane juice
EAN no.: 7898013032100
Serving suggestion: Neat at room temperature in a tulip glass, or in a Caipirinha with lime and cane sugar
Flavour profile
Spiced · Vanilla-sweet · Green · Woody · Dry
Did you know?
Bálsamo is more than a cask timber. The Myroxylon genus is known for its fragrant resin, used for centuries in perfume and in ointments. That same aromatic resin bleeds into the cachaca and gives the final twelve months of maturation their sweet, faintly medicinal undertone.
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