Matusalem

Matusalem rum is a rum from the Dominican Republic, founded in Santiago de Cuba by brothers Benjamin and Eduardo Camp. In 1872, they left Spain with Evaristo Alvarez, to embark on a rum adventure in Cuba. They brought with them their Spanish experience of blending (the famous solera of Jerez wines) and brandy distillation.

When Benjamin Camp returned to Cuba in 1912, Claudio Alvarez LeFebre, son of Evaristo, joined the company and launched the Matusalem brand. This momentum was reinforced by Prohibition in the United States, which made Cuba a favorite getaway for Americans. They also remembered Matusalem, and would return once imports were once again possible. It was against this backdrop in the 1940s that Claudio Alvarez Soriano, Evaristo's grandson, joined the family business and took it to even greater heights, alongside the famous Havana Club and Bacardi.

In 1959, the year of the Cuban revolution, the distilleries were nationalized and the families expropriated. The Matusalem distillery was retained by the new government, and is now used to make Ron Santiago. The Alvarez family went into exile in the United States, and the Matusalem brand began a gradual extinction.

The rebirth of Methuselah

Different branches of the family fought over the brand from the 1980s onwards. This led to a series of lawsuits well into the 1990s. In 1995, Dr. Claudio Alvarez Salazar, great-grandson of the founder, was finally named owner of the brand by a court ruling. He relaunched Matusalem in 2002 from the Dominican Republic. This enabled him to reproduce Cuban conditions, cane quality, etc. as closely as possible. The brand was first produced for the United States, then eventually exported more widely.

In 2005, Claudio Renaud Alvarez, the ^5th generation, took over the running of the company. Matusalem rum is now a "Caribbean blend" (Dominican Republic, and possibly other origins). It is bottled on the site of the former Bermudez distillery.

In 2015, Matusalem built its own aging and bottling facility in the province of Monte Plata.

Matusalem rum is a rather light, column-distilled molasses rum. It is always aged according to the solera principle. The cellar is made up of bourbon barrels, American oak barrels and French and Eastern European oak barrels. The famous Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 has also inherited a family recipe dating back to Claudio Alvarez's time: a maceration of plums and vanilla is added in small quantities to the blend. Read less