Review: Ypióca 160-Year Anniversary Commemorative

First, a story:

When I started getting interested in cachaça, I started looking for it in grocery and liquor stores. Often, it's quite a treat when you do find it, even if it is shoehorned into the "Rum" section's bottom shelves.

One time, my wife's mom and great-aunt were in Chicago for a visit. We took them to Fox & Obel, a high-end grocery store where, no doubt, the likes of Barack Obama have gone arugula-shopping once or twice.

I darted to the liquor section and, lo-and-behold, there were the requisite cachaça selections. I immediately ran around the store, looking for my mother-in-law. Then, dragging her to the liquor section, I pointed proudly at my find.

Well... Mamãe wasn't all that impressed. She pointed to one of the bottles -- Ypióca -- and stuck her tongue out. I think F&O was asking for somewhere around $25-$28 a bottle. Evidently, it was not to her tastes.

So, what was I to think when I show up to Mamãe's house and she presents me with this elegant package?

Well, I gave it a try.

According to the press release (site doesn't offer a permalink, sorry), this was released in July 2006. They're still advertising it fairly dramatically, as evidenced by this oversized clock that hangs above one of the ticketing areas in Rio's Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport.

As to the cachaça itself... For some odd reason, the Ypióca folks thought to introduce a malt into the process in addition to aging the product for six years. Personally, I might've preferred it if they'd concentrated on keeping the shifting variables low, focusing on aging instead of adding.

The result is this diabetic-shock-inducing aroma that carries the strong scent of wet brown sugar. Once in the mouth, it kind of behaved like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction when she exclaims "I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan!"

Not sure if they were going for the elegant after-dinner dessert liqueur or well-crafted sipping spirit. Definitely interested in their other attempts at finer cachaça if it happens in, well, fewer than another 160 years.

One barrel.

(Note to PETA: Despite the Fatal Attraction reference, no bunnies were boiled during this review.)

Comments

[Christian Castren]

Hi Phil,

I work for the Telles family; fifth generation producers of Ypioca. I read your comments on Ypioca 160 which won double gold last year at the Tampa International Cane Spirit Festival. It is indeed a sipping cachaça that should be drank on ice or cold off the freezer box.
Indeed Ypioca has produced since 1846 a great variety of cachaças and our most popular six year old (with no malt added) are Ypioca 150 anniversary edition aged 3 years in Balm wood cask + 3 years in oak and Ypioca Rio aged 6 years in oak. These products unfortunately are not yet available in the US but we continue distributing our fine 2 year old Prata and Ouro (straw package) and Cristal aged one year in Brazilian walnut. As you might now 99% of cachaça is non-aged and we at Ypioca take great pride to be one of those few estate producers that age all their products 1-6 years. For additional information please contact me at

[email protected]
Christian Castren
Regional Manager Americas

[Phil]

Christian,

Thanks for stopping by. Your comment was originally posted in the roundup of the Concierge.Com piece. I normally delete off-topic comments without notice, but I do want to make sure that Cachaçagora remains a place where makers and appreciators can come together.

In any case, I gotta call it as I taste it: The 160 (esp. with the addition of the malt) just seemed to try to do too much at once. It felt an unfocused effort.

Haven't tried the 150, but would certainly welcome it.

Thanks again for reading.

[Caleb Oliver]

This thread is a little outdated but I have hope. I am trying to locate a bottle of this in the United States. I have been looking for over a year and a half and am still unable to find even one. I will admit that I am very new to locating anything online but this is something that I would really love to try. I saw it listed in the 50 best rums and would love to get a bottle or two. Any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.