Cachaçagora Holds Its First Blind Tasting

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On Thursday, September 4, my wife and I held Cachaçagora's first blind tasting here at the Gomecile. Here were the contenders:

• Cuca Fresca Pura Gold
• Leblon Cachaça
• Barril 39
• Velho Pescador

All of these are aged in oak barrels, anywhere between six months and five years. Two — Leblon and Cuca Fresca — are available in the United States. The other two were retrieved during visits to Brazil and, near as I can tell, are either not widely available in the U.S. or not available at all.

Our judges, clockwise from upper-left, were Frederico Setti, Eric Tatro,  Leandro Ribeiro, and Bleu Caldwell.

Each cachaça was poured prior to the guests arriving. Our tasters were encouraged to look for smoothness and depth-of-flavor, rating each cachaça on that basis according to whether it was their first, second, third, or fourth choice. I then averaged the scores (like golf, achieving a lower number is best) and unveiled the rankings at the end.

As Fred was sure to mention, no cachaça was clearly "bad". He, in particular, struggled to find a number-one choice. That said, all tastings demand a ranking of some type.

Find the results after the jump.