Skip to main content

How Santa Teresa Rum Distillery Teaches Life Skills and Rugby

Santa Teresa Rum barrels.
Santa Teresa

It’s a strange story, one that prompted Venezuelan rum brand Santa Teresa 1796 to give back to the community in a big way. The tale involves an attempted break-in, rugby, estate rum, and a flourishing program that gives locals a second chance by way of sport.

Recommended Videos

Related Reading

Back in 2003 in the Revenga region of Venezuela, a local gang ambushed a guard at the Santa Teresa 1796 headquarters. The burglars were apprehended but instead of being handed off to the local authorities, the distillery offered an alternative: Work off the offense. The gang took on various roles at the hacienda and Santa Teresa CEO, Alberto Vollmer, taught them to play his favorite sport of rugby. Project Alcatraz was born.

Vollmer picked up a love for rugby while studying in France and ultimately founded the first team in Venezuela while an engineering student at the Universidad Metropolitana. The game itself has its perks but it’s the many other related positives that he and his team have really come to adore—things like discipline, respect, and teamwork.

Since then, Project Alcatraz has become something of a national phenomenon. It continues to recruit local gang members and would-be criminals and offers a more productive outlet. It is estimated that the program has reduced homicide rates in Revenga by a whopping 90%. Vollmer and his team have created rugby squads in facilities all over the country and taught the soccer-obsessed locals how to play the physical English game.

“Project Alcatraz is the heart and soul of Santa Teresa,” says Andrés Chumaceiro, director of business of Santa Teresa 1796. We’re so inspired by the men and women—whom we refer to as the ‘Alcatraces’—who we’ve rehabilitated and reinserted back into society through rugby, which builds trust, confidence, and sportsmanship, and through on-the-job training, which gets them back on their feet and provides them with a second chance.”

The brand runs every aspect of the program, from funding and staff training to community outreach and putting on the rugby matches themselves. “Our goal through Project Alcatraz is to smile back at adversity,” Chumaceiro adds.

Santa Teresa Project Alcatraz rugby team.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

According to Chumaceiro, the program has helped hundreds of young Venezuelan men and thousands of at-risk youths from the area. Harvard Business School and scores of business schools in Latin America have used Project Alcatraz as a case study for conflict resolution. Nations like Argentina, inspired by the ability of sport to do good in the community, have initiated their own leagues. The program has garnered a number of accolades, including Best Project of Social Inclusion from the UK’s Beyond Sport.

It’s not just a boys club, by the way. In the last two years, Project Alcatraz has expanded to a dozen female penitentiary centers in Venezuela. Impressively, the program has spawned rugby leagues in half of all the penitentiaries in the nation. Some of the success stories are truly remarkable “We live rugby beyond its practice in the field,” Chumaceiro says. “Rugby is part of our culture through its values and everyone in the organization promotes them.”

For instance, Chumaceiro says the program worked with “gang number eleven,” one of the most prominent from the dangerous town of Sabaneta. He says in 2018, one of the gang members took the life of a Santa Teresa security guard. Instead of doing serious time, the perpetrator was brought into Project Alcatraz. Since then, the head of the gang has set up a company to distribute Santa Teresa. A fellow gang member, Chumaceiro says, is currently in training to become a brand ambassador, learning to mix world-class drinks and speak English on top of Spanish. It’s an incredible example of humility and creative conflict resolution from a big regional drinks company.

Santa Teresa rum flight.
Santa Teresa

Oh, and let’s not forget about the product. Santa Teresa specializes in estate rum crafted from the Aragua Valley. It is solera in style, made of blended vintages. The resident sugarcane dates back to the late 1700s while the first rum was produced in 1830 by Vollmer’s ancestors. The resulting rum is smooth and balanced, pleasant to sip on its own, or work into cocktails like a Mojito or Rum Old Fashioned.

What’s next for the brand and its lauded Project Alcatraz? Chumaceiro says he’d like the program to be implemented in every penitentiary in the country. He hopes it will keep expanding among women and that more and more gang members give up their old ways for Project Alcatraz. “Our dream is to have a full production line manned by Alcatraces and to also have them preparing cocktails for the best bars in the world,” he says.

Giving back runs rampant at Santa Teresa. The brand also runs Casas Blancas, a project launched in 2012 that has created more than 400 homes for Revenga residents. Why do all this? Chumaceiro says it’s all about being human. We like to believe that brands have souls,” he says. “After all, they are built by human beings. For this reason, we encourage brands to create and support social platforms and their local communities.”

Mark Stock
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
What is steak frites? Your new favorite comfort food
How to master the French classic of steak and fries
Steak frites

I've lived in Italy before, which afforded me a quick 2-hour plane ride to Paris in the summers. I'm from the United States, and I don't speak French, so I wasn't exactly familiar with the menu the first time I went to a restaurant in the City of Love. I picked something that looked familiar ... steak frites. I got perfectly seared steak next to a golden mound of crispy fries; it felt familiar and comforting.

So, what is steak frites? It’s one of the simplest, most iconic dishes in French cuisine. A bistro classic, it's exactly what it sounds like: steak and fries. But don't let its simplicity fool you — when done right, it delivers big flavor with minimal fuss.

Read more
Purity Coffee unveils Brazilian cold brew for home brewing
A new clean coffee blend designed specific for cold brewing
Purity Coffee Cold Brew

Health-focused coffee company, Purity Coffee, has just released its latest innovation: Cold Brew. The new Cold Brew is a single-origin Brazilian coffee, specially crafted for cold brewing at home. Purity Coffee is known for its high-end, mold-free coffee—this blend, which uses beans rich in antioxidants and prebiotic compounds. The latest cold brew blend is designed explicitly with gut health in mind, setting a new standard in health-conscious coffee. Available in whole bean or ground coffee, the new Purity Coffee Cold Brew blend is a medium-roast coffee with tasting notes of cocoa nibs and peanut butter.

The Purity Coffee Cold Brew, now available online, can be easily used with any of your favorite at-home cold brew methods. Just steep for at least 6 to 7 hours to ensure maximum flavor extraction, as well as the extraction of caffeine and antioxidants. This coffee blend, along with all products by Purity Coffee, undergoes rigorous third-party testing for mycotoxins, impurities, and other contaminants, leading to the best-tasting cup of coffee. As health-conscious coffee consumption continues to rise, coffee drinkers are increasingly paying attention to potential toxins and mold that can be present in their coffee. As a regular cold brew drinker, I'm especially excited about this new release by Purity Coffee.

Read more
How to make a dairy-free Grasshopper cocktail like a pro
How to make a classic cocktail with a twist
The Mommy Grasshopper.

So many great cocktails, so little time. This week, we thought we'd get a fresh take on a classic cocktail recipe. Naturally, we reached out to those who know them best, aka pro bartenders.

The Mothership is a great bar in Milwaukee. The place resides in the Bay View neighborhood and mixes up some top-shelf drinks. And they were nice enough to offer a fresh take on The Grasshopper, the cocktail that's done everything from feature in timeless bar jokes to shows starring Kristen Wiig.

Read more