The El Dorado Rare Collection – A Brief Recap of Releases I, II & III

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Jan 282020
 
The El Dorado Rare Collection - A Brief Recap of Releases I, II & III

The El Dorado Rare Collection made its debut in early 2016 and almost immediately raised howls of protest from rum fans who felt not only that Velier had been hosed by being evicted from their state of privileged access to DDL’s store of aged barrels, but that the prices in comparison to Luca’s wares (many which had just started their inexorable climb to four figures) were out to lunch at best and extortionate at worst.  The price issue was annoying — at the time, DDL had no track record with full proof still-specific rums, or possessed anything near the kind [Click here for the full review…]


Four Bells Finest Old Navy Rum (1970-1980s)

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Jan 262020
 
Four Bells Finest Old Navy Rum (1970-1980s)

Rumaniacs Review #109 | 0695 It may be called a Navy rum but the label is quite clear that it’s a “Product of Guyana” so perhaps what they were doing is channelling the Pussers rums from forty years later, which also and similarly restricted themselves to one component of the navy rum recipe. The British maritime moniker has always been a rather plastic concept – as an example, I recall reading that they also sourced rums from Australia for their blend at one point – so perhaps, as long as it was sold and served to the Navy, it was [Click here for the full review…]


L’Esprit Beenleigh 2013 5YO Australian Rum – Review

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Jan 232020
 
L'Esprit Beenleigh 2013 5YO Australian Rum - Review

The French-bottled, Australian-distilled Beenleigh 5 Year Old Rum is a screamer of a rum, a rum that wasn’t just released in 2018, but unleashed. Like a mad roller coaster, it careneed madly up and down and from side to side, breaking every rule and always seeming just about to go off the rails of taste before managing to stay on course, providing, at end, an experience that was shattering — if not precisely outstanding. It is bottled by L’Esprit, the Brittany-based company that provided two of the most powerful whites I’ve ever tried (from Fiji and Guyana); and distilled by [Click here for the full review…]


That Boutique-y Rum Company Bellevue 1999-2018 19YO Guadeloupe Rum – Review

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Jan 202020
 
That Boutique-y Rum Company Bellevue 1999-2018 19YO Guadeloupe Rum - Review

In spite of being “just” a consultant, Pete Holland of The Floating Rum Shack is so completely identified with the rums of the cheekily named That Boutique-y Rum Company, that we sometimes overlook the fact the outfit is actually part of Atom Brands which runs the Masters of Malt online spirits establishment. The curious matter of his being seen as the face of the brand can be directly traced to two things – his consistent promotional work for TBRC online and off, and the irreverent paintings by Jim’ll Paint It that adorn the labels of the bottles, many of which [Click here for the full review…]


Lamb’s Navy Rum (1980s)

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Jan 162020
 
Lamb's Navy Rum (1980s)

Rumaniacs Review 0108 | 0692 This rum is a companion of the Lamb’s 70º Demerara Navy and other UK rums made by various merchants bottlers, e.g. Four Bells Finest Navy Rum, Mainbrace, Black Heart, Red Duster Finest Navy, Old Vatted Demerara rum, and so on.  It’s admittedly a treat to try them and trace their dusty, almost-forgotten companies of origin. This Navy wannabe was made when the UK had moved beyond the degrees proof (in 1980) but while United Rum Merchants was still located in Tooley Street, London and not yet taken over by Allied Domecq in the early 1990s. [Click here for the full review…]


Saint Benevolence Haitian Clairin – Review

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Jan 132020
 
Saint Benevolence Haitian Clairin - Review

“White cane spirits are having a moment,” wrote Josh Miller of Inu a Kena in naming the Saint Benevolence clairin one of his top rums of 2019.  He was spot on about that and I’ve felt the same way about white rums in general and clairins in particular ever since I had the good fortune to try the Sajous in Paris back in 2014 and had my hair blown back and into next week – so much so that I didn’t just make one list of 21 good white rums, but a second one for good measure (and am gathering [Click here for the full review…]


El Dorado Rare Collection – Skeldon 2000-2018 18 YO Rum – Review

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Jan 082020
 
El Dorado Rare Collection – Skeldon 2000-2018 18 YO Rum – Review

No matter how many Guyanese wooden-still rums get bottled sporting the famed letters PM, VSG or EHP, none of them save perhaps the very oldest have anything near the mythical cachet of rums bearing the name “Skeldon”.  Even when I penned my original review of Velier’s Skeldon 1973 back in 2014 (when the company and Luca Gargano were hardly household names), it was clear that it had already become a cult rum. Nowadays the 1973 or 1978 rums sell for thousands of dollars apiece any time they come up for auction and that price and their incredible rarity makes them [Click here for the full review…]


El Dorado Rare Collection – Albion 2004-2018 14 YO Rum – Review

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Jan 062020
 
El Dorado Rare Collection - Albion 2004-2018 14 YO Rum - Review

In early 2016 when the first Rares from El Dorado hit the market, there was a lot of mumbling and grumbling in the blogosphere.  Most of that was the feeling that Velier (which was to say, Luca Gargano, whose star was in rapid ascent back then) had been inconsiderately evicted from his privileged access to DDL’s barrels in a cheap shot to muscle in on the market niche he had almost singlehandedly built, for tropically-aged ultra-old full-proof still-specific Guyanese rums.  But almost as loud was the squealing about the prices, higher than Velier’s and the prevailing indies’ rates, which were [Click here for the full review…]


Chamarel 2014 4 YO Rum (Velier Indian Ocean Stills) – Review

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Jan 022020
 
Chamarel 2014 4 YO Rum (Velier Indian Ocean Stills) - Review

The actual title of this rhum is Chamarel Pure Sugar Cane Juice 2014 4 YO Rum, but Mauritius doesn’t have license to use the term “agricole” the way Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion and Madeira do.  And while some new producers from the Far East and America seem to have no problem casually appropriating a name that is supposedly restricted to only those four locations, we know that Luca Gargano of Velier, whose brainchild these Indian rums are, would never countenance or promote such a subversion of convention.  And so a “pure sugar cane juice” rum it is. Now, Mauritius has been [Click here for the full review…]


Lemon Hart Golden Jamaica Rum (1970s)

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Dec 302019
 
Lemon Hart Golden Jamaica Rum (1970s)

Rumaniacs Review #107 | R-0688 Lemon Hart is known for their Navy rums and 151 overproofs, the last of which I tried while still living in Canada when it was briefly re-issued. But they did dip their toes into other waters from time to time, such as with this 73% Gluteus Maximus wannabe from Jamaica they released while the brand was still listed under the address and label of the United Rum Merchants — which, if you recall, was a 1946 combine of Lemon Hart (owned by Portal, Dingwall & Norris), Whyte-Keelings and Lamb’s. A year later, URM became part [Click here for the full review…]


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