The Secret Life of Cuban Roneros

Cuba’s collective of Maestro Roneros is a group unlike any other in the spirits world. Matt Pietrek offers a glimpse into the inner sanctum of Cuban rum.

Words by Matt Pietrek
Photography by Laurence Winram

In a world where terms like ‘master distiller’ and ‘master blender’ are tossed around all too easily, Cuban rum is a breath of fresh air.

With the rise of countless craft distilleries, individuals with little experience but a lot of shiny equipment quickly claim the title – or have it thrust upon them by a zealous marketing department.

The fact is that true master distillers are a rare breed. They’ve dedicated decades – often the majority of their lives – to learning every detailed aspect of their chosen spirit. These are consummate professionals who have often become synonymous with their brands.

While master distillers work to grow their brand’s reputation, often traveling the globe to act as its living persona, Cuba’s Maestro Roneros toil in near anonymity, tasked as they are with a larger mission: preserving Cuba’s rum legacy. These professionals aren’t just masters of distilling or masters of blending: each one has mastered all aspects of Cuban rum-making, and it’s a lifelong calling.

This collective is a group unlike any other in the spirits world. They don’t work for a brand or even a distillery. Rather, they are employees of the Cuban government, charged with preserving and protecting the country’s rum-making traditions, as codified in Cuba’s rum regulations:

“Maestro Roneros are the true keepers of the secrets behind the ageing and blending of rum, passed along from one generation to the next; they are the faithful guardians of the history and character of Cuban rum.”

This is reflected in the belief that Maestro Roneros are born, not made. That if you’re not blessed with the innate sense of taste and smell – a feel for Cuban rum – then no amount of study can make you a Maestro. Although each member brings different passions and experience to the table, the common thread that binds them is a commitment to creating classic Cuban rum and imparting that knowledge to the next generation.

As such the day-to-day tasks of a Maestro go far beyond the distillery and warehouse operations. They are also teaching and monitoring the progress of their successors, identified by the collective as aspirantes. This is a critical insight. Maestro Roneros don’t consider themselves rock stars, seeking the limelight for their achievements. Instead they look both forward and backward in time. Looking to the past is the history they seek to preserve, as they work with rums put into cask decades ago, often years before they were born. Looking to the future, their mission is to prepare their eventual successors as keepers of Cuban rum’s heritage and production, and to craft the rums that these aspirantes will someday work with. Maestro Roneros come and go, but Cuba’s rum legacy endures.

Whereas ‘Spanish-style’ rums can now be found throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, it is generally agreed that the origins of this style – a lighter rum with an emphasis on barrel ageing – can be traced back to Cuba during the mid-1800s.

By this point in history the pot still rums of English colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica had already established their distinctly pungent flavour profiles. Meanwhile, Cuban roneros were still finding their way, having been prevented from distilling spirits until the Spanish crown granted permission in 1796. Cuba’s initial experiments with the pot still produced an aguardiente which was considered rough and unpalatable.

The arrival of the newly invented column still in the middle of the nineteenth century changed everything, and the lighter rum it produced inspired Cuban roneros such as Facundo Bacardi to experiment with new techniques. Although not invented in Cuba, the carbon filtration of aged aguardiente – which passes the spirit through charcoal to remove colour – soon became a hallmark of Cuban rum production. By the early twentieth century, these lighter, column-distilled rums – most notably from the house of Bacardi – were winning awards and in high demand. It is these same rums that would give rise to classic cocktails such as the Mojito and the Daiquiri.

Fast forward to the 1950s and the aftermath of the Cuban revolution, a time that saw the government nationalise a number of key industries, rum and sugar included. Cuban rum production was dominated by three families, Bacardi, Arechabala and Camp, all of whom fled the country as the government seized control of their production facilities and ageing warehouses. Cuban rum-making effectively went dark during the sixties, and the archives of these family brands disappeared into the annals of government bureaucracy, quite possibly lost forever.

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