CH: How has your company transitioned into the craft age?

RS: We’ve always thought of ourselves as being craft distillers. We have a strong local element. And we’ve been hand-making rum for 150 years. Yes, ‘craft’ is defined by size in some ways, but also by attention to detail. We may not be a small company anymore, but we still produce rum by following our passion for making it.

CH: What’s next for Serrallés?

RS: We’ll be bulking up on our aged expressions. And in January of this year we’ll be releasing another single-barrel expression as part of a new program that will release a new single barrel every year. The first one will be from 2005, and we’ll start off by releasing 4,000 cases a year.

We’re also going to be playing around with barrel-aged spiced rums and with different barrels for aging. We’ll be resting rum in cognac barrels, port pipes and old sherry casks.

I feel strongly that aged rums have all the traits to do well with today’s consumer of premium spirits. Side by side, aged rums can match up with any good Scotch or Bourbon. Over time, I think we can claim a bigger piece of that pie.

Kyle Swartz is associate editor of Cheers Magazine.