Our story began more than 30 years ago, in a historic setting: the Santo Antônio das Pitangueiras ranch, whose core, a mansion built in 1715, was completely restored by the couple of José Otávio de Carvalho Lopes and Rosana Romano, owners of the ranch and now the brand.
Near the house was a courtyard, in which stood a little old still. Half as a joke, whenever the family gathered for a celebration, the still was put to use, producing around 6 litres of cachaça a time. And it was a great success. This cachaça, named Cachaça Romana, became a tradition of family reunions and ended up being offered also to friends. The friends liked it and started to put in orders, and these became more and more frequent until the little old still could no longer keep up with demand.
So the Santíssima Distillery was built. It started producing two different lines: the Cachaça Santa Romana and the Cachaça Bem Me Quer. The quality of these spirits is so high and the flavor so good that both lines have already been given the “seal” of export quality, being positioned chiefly for the foreign market.
Today, already a sucess with the international public and with sales worldwide, the cachaças Bem Me Quer also stand out in our demanding and crowded national marketplace.
1. HARVESTING: The harvesting of the sugar cane is done by hand, without any burning of the stalks. Having been cut, the cane is cleaned and chopped on our own plantation, after which it goes to the mill to be rolled, always on the same day as the harvesting.
2. MILLING: Arriving at the mill, the sugar cane juice (“garapa”) is extracted, before being decanted and filtered.
3. FERMENTATION: When the juice reaches the right level of sweetness (“brix”), it goes to the fermentation vats, where it is fermented with specially selected yeasts which convert the sugar to alcohol.
4. DISTILLATION: The stills are made of copper and the distillation is partial, which is to say only the “heart”, the best part of the must, is used in the artisanal process. This ensures the quality of the product.
5. AGEING/CASKING: Part of the production is casked so that it can rest (ageing), using barrels made from different types of wood: oak, balsam, amburana. The other part is casked in steel kegs.
6. THE 'BLEND’: Master Blender Armando Del Bianco is responsible for the cachaça blends of the Santíssima Distillery. Combining different woods, with their particular characteristics, Armando adds elegance and sophistication to the distillery’s cachaça, a new chapter in the story.
