The Story of Santos Dumont

When you mention Santos Dumont, all enthusiasts of innovations and inventions immediately take notice. Especially aviation fans. The brand name  Brazilian rums Santos Dumont is closely linked to one of Brazil's most fascinating inventors.

At the end of the 19th century, an extraordinary man named Alberto Santos Dumont (July 20, 1873 – July 23, 1932) lived in Brazil. He was a world-renowned aviation pioneer, aristocrat, celebrity, style icon, as well as the heir to a wealthy family of coffee and sugarcane producers in Brazil. His father was a French engineer and the coffee king of Brazil, owning a vast plantation called Cabangu (in the state of Minas Gerais, near São Paulo). By utilizing the latest inventions that helped them on the plantation with efficiency, the Santos Dumont family became significantly wealthy and transitioned from sugarcane grown on the plantation to distilling rum and cachaça.

However, let's return to Albert. Since childhood, he has been fascinated by all the machines used on the plantation. The steam tractor he drove as a child was no exception. Young Santos Dumont was a big fan of the writer Jules Verne and read all his books before his 10th birthday.

After his father fell from a horse and became paralyzed in 1891, the family moved to France. Here, Alberto began designing, constructing, and testing flying machines. His triumph was winning the "Deutsch De La Meurthe Prize" on October 19, 1901, during which he circled the Eiffel Tower in a balloon within the set time of under 30 minutes. This event made him a world celebrity at the beginning of the 20th century. He gained popularity especially among ordinary people when he divided half of his prize of 100,000 francs among his employees and gave the other half to the poor citizens of Paris.

Aerial experiments and races continued nonetheless. This is also linked to another gem from his life. The pocket watches of the time were impractical during flying, and Alberto needed a watch that would allow him to keep track of time without taking his hands off the controls. Therefore, he ordered the first men's wristwatch, specially made for his needs by his close friend and jeweler Louis Cartier. These historic watches are now displayed in a museum alongside one of his airplanes.

He made his first flight with his airplane on March 6, 1909, in Issy-les-Moulineaux. The aircraft flew well, yet it was challenging to pilot. In May, he flew 2 km on it, and by September, he had already covered a distance of 18 km.

The story of Alberto Santosa Dumont has become so interesting that it has also been adapted into a series on HBO, where you can already find it dubbed in Czech.

Brazilian plantations are still the largest producers of cane sugar and are owned by the Santos family (likely relatives of Alberto on his mother's side). Rum Santos Dumont is, like Alberto, exceptional and carries something typically Brazilian. It is known as a sweet, aromatic, and well-aged rum, with the special feature that it is also blended with typical Brazilian cachaça (distillate from sugarcane juice). It resembles Spanish rums, but without the notes of burnt wood. To hint at the success of this brand, Santos Dumont is among the top 10 best-selling rums in our e-shop.

Santos Dumont is a rum brand with a fascinating history, named after the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont. The brand's founders were inspired by Santos Dumont's aviation spirit and his passion for freedom to create the highest quality rum that captures the joy and adventure of flying.

Santos Dumont offers a wide range of premium rums, crafted by expert distillers from hand-selected sugarcane varieties. Each rum is made according to a unique recipe and a careful aging process to provide a distinctive tasting experience.

Whether you are looking for a quality rum for a special occasion or just want to discover a new spirit, Santos Dumont is a brand that represents quality and innovation and is definitely worth trying.

Rum Santos Dumont XO is produced by A.H. Riise Spirits in Dragør, Denmark. A.H. Riise, which is one of the largest Scandinavian spirits companies, produces, sells, and distributes brands of whisky, rum, vodka, and gin. The company (founded in 2016) is named after its most famous spirit brand A.H. Riise Rum, which is a tribute to Albert Heinrich Riise, who established rum production on the island of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1838.

In the Santos Dumont portfolio there are three rums - Santos Dumont XO, which matures in three barrels of bourbon, cherries, and port wine, Santos Dumont Elixir XO and Santos Dumont Heritage. All are limited editions, and each bottle is numbered and carries the barrel numbers in which its contents matured.
Additionally, there are two rum liqueurs available - Santos Dumont XO Palmira, Santos Dumont XO Gewürztraminer, which cannot be labeled as rum due to their higher sugar content per liter than is permitted.