Novo Fogo Chameleon Cachaca

Chameleon is the middle child — Difford's calls it the perfect middle of the road for anyone who can't keep both an unaged and a barrel-aged cachaça on the shelf. Novo Fogo — "new fire" — was founded in 2004 in Morretes, in the coastal Atlantic rainforest of Paraná state in southern Brazil, and owns its own distillery: organic estate sugarcane, pressed within a day, fermented into a low-strength cane wine, and pot-distilled in small batches. Chameleon is a blend of that pot-still cachaça aged one year in American oak barrels that previously held Four Roses bourbon — the ends removed, the insides flayed to fresh wood and lightly toasted, then reassembled — married with unaged Silver, and bottled at 43% ABV, non-chill filtered, USDA organic. Novo Fogo says it marries the savory identity of the Silver with the vanilla of the barrel, aged just long enough to reach peak mixability without losing its rainforest-and-sugarcane funk. Difford's found overripe banana, hazelnut, vanilla, nutmeg, and freshly sawn scorched oak on the nose, then an herbal, spicy palate of sweet grassy cane and vanilla against dry, faintly smoky oak — and, despite the year in wood, perhaps more grassy cane character than the Silver. The Lone Caner found more character in the 43% Chameleon than the 40% Barrel-Aged, and gave it his money. For a Caipirinha with depth, a cachaça Old Fashioned, or a Batida, it's the one that changes color.

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