Matusalem & Co.

Matusalem & Company is a family-owned manufacturer of premium Caribbean rum. Founded in Santiago de Cuba, it is now produced in the Dominican Republic.

History

Matusalem & Company was founded by brothers Benjamin and Eduardo Camp, who left Spain and settled in Cuba for the purpose of establishing a rum distillery. In 1872, the Camp brothers, along with their partner Evaristo Alvarez, established the Matusalem brand in Santiago de Cuba. The Camp brothers brought with them their knowledge and expertise in the Solera system of blending and distillation used in making Spanish brandy.

The name "Matusalem" is Spanish for Methuselah, the Old Testament patriarch said to have lived for 969 years. It was chosen as a reference to the aging process used in producing the brand. The name is taken from the popular Spanish proverb "Mas viejo que Matusalem," which means "Older than Methuselah."

In 1912, Benjamin Camp returned to Spain, leaving the company in the hands of his brother Eduardo. The Camp and Alvarez families were united when Evaristo Alvarez' daughter married the son of Eduardo Camp. During the next 25 years, the Company grew and thrived under the leadership of Claudio Alvarez LeFebre, the son of Evaristo Alvarez.

During the 1930s, Prohibition in the United States made Cuba a favorite vacation destination for Americans, introducing Cuban rum and the cocktail to American tastes.

During the 1940s, Claudio Alvarez LeFebre was succeeded by his son, Claudio Alvarez Soriano. Under his leadership, Matusalem and Company captured fifty percent of the Cuban rum market. Disaster struck the family in 1956 when the elder Alvarez died, and six months later, the younger Alvarez died of lung cancer.

Following the Cuban revolution 1959, the family-owned Matusalem brand went into exile, and Matusalem and Company was established in the United States. The Cuban government continued to make rum in the former Matusalem factory in Santiago de Cuba, marketing the product as Ron Santiago (Santiago Rum).

Neglect of the Matusalem brand, a result of feuding between three branches of the family, was ended in 1995 when Dr. Claudio Alvarez Salazar, the great-grandson of the founder, gained control of Matusalem and Company in an out-of-court settlement. In 2002, Matusalem and Company was relaunched and is once again positioned as a line of premium Caribbean rums.

Today, Matusalem Rum is produced in the Dominican Republic. Matusalem's master blenders are all descendants of the original founders, and are experts in the centuries old technique of solera blending. In the solera blending process, barrels of rum representing different stages in the maturation process are blended to create the desired unique blend.

Current Portfolio

Three different products are currently manufactured by Matusalem and Company.

• Matusalem Gran Reserva is a super premium rum and is Solera aged for 15 years.
• Matusalem Clasico is a classic Cuban-style golden rum, blended from select rums aged in New World oak and Solera aged for 10 years.
• Matusalem Platino is a blend of triple-distilled, handcrafted rums, combined, then filtered and refined again.

External links

• Matusalem & Co. Homepage