Last month Diageo, the word’s largest spirit drinks company, shone at the prestigious World Spirits Competition that is celebrated in San Francisco every year. It won 110 medals, of which 40 medals were gold or double gold.

One of the Diageo’s stars of the night was its Venezuelan rum Pampero Aniversario, which won a double gold medal. This is not the first time Diageo succeeds with the iconic Venezuelan brand. In 2007, Pampero Aniversario was awarded the best rum in the same competition, which gathered 86 of the world’s finest rums.

The Pampero brand’s story goes back to 1938 when Alejandro Hernandez, the son of a fisherman from Margarita Island, returned to Venezuela after his extensive travels and founded the Pampero rum distillery with some innovative ideas that changed the way rum was produced in the South American country.  It is alleged that Pampero was the first distillery that set the high quality standards that make Venezuelan rums famous.

Venezuelan rums are well known for their intense and complex flavour. The supreme quality of the Venezuelan sugar cane, produced in a geographical location where climatic factors help to age the liquor faster than in other countries. Then there’s with the guarantee that they are at least two years old (according to Venezuelan law). Finally, the oak casks in which they are normally aged make the local sugar cane spirits amongst the best in the world.

In comparison, most Caribbean rums are normally only 6 months old and many of them are aged in metal barrels instead of oak casks.

Medium bodied, rich and smooth, Pampero Aniversario is simply one of the finest rums in the world according to rum connoisseurs and aficionados. In addition, its unique short rounded bottle, enclosed in a tan leather sack, makes it to stand out from the crowd.