Devil’s Thumb Distillery Cane Spirit Batch #13 Australian Rum – Review

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Jul 212024
 
Devil's Thumb Distillery Cane Spirit Batch #13 Australian Rum – Review

Devil’s Thumb Distillery may hold the distinction of being one of the northernmost Australian distilleries making rum in Australia (as far as I know only Hoochery is further north and that by less than one degree of latitude, but never mind).  That places it in northern Queensland (FNQ, remember that?) about 1800km north of Brisbane, and takes its name from an iconic peak of that name in the Daintree Rainforest that overlooks over Port Douglas, Mossman and beyond: the founding team felt it would be the perfect name for the distillery. Who is the team? Well there you have me, [Click here for the full review…]


Doorly’s Finest Old Barbados 3YO Rum – Review

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Jul 162024
 
Doorly's Finest Old Barbados 3YO Rum - Review

Over the years I’ve somewhat revised my initially indifferent stance towards Doorly’s, which at various times I sniffed at as lacking in seriousness, bereft of real character, a relic of a bygone and more innocent era, or various other rather dismissive comments. To me, Doorly’s always seemed to be a genuflection to the mass market instead of something more exactingly made.  The entire line, even with its heritage, paled in taste and significance when rated against the rums that Foursquare became known for: the ECS series, the Velier Collaborations, the pot still aged rums and the occasional Master Distillers releases. [Click here for the full review…]


Sunshine & Sons Maroochy River “Barrel Aged Cane” Australian Cane Juice Rum – Review

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Jul 122024
 
Sunshine & Sons Maroochy River "Barrel Aged Cane" Australian Cane Juice Rum – Review

Let’s get back to Australia, and take a look at one of the rums that begins to turn up the proof a little: this is the Barrel Aged Cane from a locality of the Sunshine Coast Region, just north of Brisbane, in Queensland. The torturous title — which when you parse it linguistically, actually makes no sense — is a way to get around the two year rule for calling a rum “rum” Down Under.  There is not too much information on the distillery available on their website beyond the usual hyperboles and flowery language, so I’ll spare you that [Click here for the full review…]


Montanya Distillers “Querencia” 7YO Rum – Review

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Jun 242024
 
Montanya Distillers "Querencia" 7YO Rum - Review

This the third review of a rum from Montanya distillers after the interesting white Platino and the somewhat polarising 3YO “Exclusiva” (I never got around to the 4YO “Valentia” and the “Oro” is in the queue). Montanya is that forward looking Colorado-based distillery that made lots of rum waves in the last decade; founded in 2008, it was run by Karen Hoskin before the company was acquired by CRN Ventures in December 2023. Since CRN is made up of head distiller Megan Campbell, former head distiller and operations lead Renée Newton, and brand strategist Sean W Richards (who one imagines [Click here for the full review…]


Yack Creek Distillery Amber “Tavern Style” Rum #12 (Australia) – Review

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Jun 212024
 
Yack Creek Distillery Amber "Tavern Style" Rum #12 (Australia) - Review

Those with pachyderm memories will recall that the 2021 Australian advent calendar also had a rum from Yack distillery, also called “Tavern Style”, but a much earlier batch, the No. 5; and even though the website only goes up to Batch #008, this one is assuredly newer. I’ll place a recap of the distillery background below this review so you can read faster, and for once I’ll keep things short.  Basically, there are very few aspects of this rum that are different from batch to batch – the reason there are such releases at all is because of the relatively [Click here for the full review…]


Ninefold Distillery “Watson’s Reserve” Aged Rum (Batch #1) – Review

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Jun 172024
 
Ninefold Distillery "Watson's Reserve" Aged Rum (Batch #1) - Review

The question most have when seeing this bottle for the first time, is, not unnaturally, who the hell is Watson? Is it the owner?  An old and crusty master blender, a black sheep member of the family? Some anonymous angel investor from way back? Naah, it’s none of the above – with a cheeky sense of humour that would do the new Australian micros proud, the answer is…the distillery cat; and they named their rarest experimental casks for him. This might make the distillery seem somewhat of a lark and not all that serious, but take my word for it [Click here for the full review…]


New Norfolk Distillery Dormant Star Single Rum (Batch 2)(Tasmania) – Review

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Jun 102024
 
New Norfolk Distillery Dormant Star Single Rum (Batch 2)(Tasmania) – Review

Now here we’re approaching a distillery that moves away somewhat from the east coast of Australia where so many other rum making outfits  are found, and situates itself firmly on the southern island of Tasmania (about which I could tell you plenty historical stuff, but may risk putting you to sleep and so shall desist). In brief, this distillery, located in New Norfolk (get it?) in the Derwent Valley in southern Tasmania, just NW of Hobart, the capital, is on premises that once housed a hospital and asylum complex. It was established in 2019 by Tarrant Derkson, who decided to [Click here for the full review…]


Héritiers Madkaud Cuvée “Renaissance” Martinique Rhum – Review

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Jun 052024
 
Héritiers Madkaud Cuvée "Renaissance" Martinique Rhum - Review

Even though it has been knocking around Europe for at least a decade, Héritiers Madkaud is not a name that will be instantly familiar to many rum aficionados…it’s probably best known to the French. They have occasionally been spotted on the festival circuit (and won a few awards), and remain easier to find in online stores than in brick and mortar shops. The rhums they release are from Martinique, are AOC certified cane juice rhums, and the blanc I tried was definitely right up there, so it’s kind of a downer that more people aren’t familiar with it A few [Click here for the full review…]


Beenleigh XO Rare 10YO Rum 2023 (Australia) – Review

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May 312024
 
Beenleigh XO Rare 10YO Rum 2023 (Australia) – Review

Although it’s slowly changing, it’s still a good bet that if the average rum drinker were asked to name any Australian rums and the companies that made them, the two most common responses would be Bundaberg and Beenleigh. And whether or not one was a native of Australia, the general consensus would also be that the Bundie (located some distance north of Brisbane in Queensland) is foul hooch for the masses while Beenleigh (just south of Brisbane) aspires to something more highbrow and makes somewhat better regarded rums.  Both export a lot and are known around the world, with Beenleigh [Click here for the full review…]


Caroll’s Distillery RHE High Ester White Rum – Review

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May 262024
 
Caroll's Distillery RHE High Ester White Rum - Review

I’ve made no secret of my disdain for the cheap mass produced uninteresting blah of the regular run of filtered standard strength white rums made and sold in Canada. They are mostly tasteless, cheerless, charmless and graceless, and their only purpose is to get you – as economically as possible – as high as a giraffe’s butt. Perhaps we should be grateful that they do this one thing so well.  If you wonder at my snark, it’s because I know that it’s possible to make an economical white rum that is much better and has real flavour, a real character, [Click here for the full review…]


Karu Distillery Outcask Rum (Batch 1)(Australia) – Review

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May 212024
 
Karu Distillery Outcask Rum (Batch 1)(Australia) - Review

It would be easy to think that the Karu Distillery in New South Wales has some connection to South Africa’s karoo, given the gin with the cheetah on the label which the founding Australian couple – Nick and Ally Ayres – have added to their lineup.  You’d be wrong – in point of fact the word karu is of Estonian origin, like Ally Ayres herself, and means “bear,” and was a concept they wanted to embody (it also means “Eye” in Maori). The distillery is of relatively recent vintage, having been established in 2017: and while in parts of SE [Click here for the full review…]


Helios Distillery “Teeda” Blended Japanese Rum – Review

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May 142024
 
Helios Distillery "Teeda" Blended Japanese Rum - Review

Although of late I have been unable to source many rums from Japan, one company’s juice does make it over to Calgary, and that’s the Helios Distillery’s “Teeda” brand. So far neither the 5YO nor the white are to be found here (though both have been reviewed in these pages based on their coming out party in Paris a few years ago); however, we have seen the amazing 21 YO, and the rather deceptive, blended “standard strength” rum which we are looking at today. For the benefit of those who want to know more about Helios, it is arguably the [Click here for the full review…]


Boatrocker Brewers & Distillers Double Barrel Australian Rum (Batch #4) – Review

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May 072024
 
Boatrocker Brewers & Distillers Double Barrel Australian Rum (Batch #4) - Review

We met this distillery before, last time we had an advent calendar: back then they were presenting Batch #3 of their double barrel rum, and now here we have the next iteration, the Batch #4. You can read a more extended company bio below this review, so let’s skip right to the rum itself, for which the production process is the same as before. A primary ferment uses a yeast originally from Jamaica; a dunder/muck pit (also not mentioned on the site) provides cultured bacteria, and wild yeast is from the local area, all which is continually evolving as they [Click here for the full review…]


Bumbu XO Blended Panamanian Rum – Review

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May 032024
 
Bumbu XO Blended Panamanian Rum - Review

Sooner or later, even those rums that many regard as no more than the mangy spirituous curs, the spavined, rice-eating, lice-ridden mongrels of the rum world, need to be acknowledged. We all know who makes them, and who they are. To those who dislike them, they yap at the doorsteps of the rumhouse with an incessant sort of insistence day in and day out, and are dissed and dismissed with sneers and contempt at every turn. And yet there are those who swear by them with truculent blue collar appreciation as well: such rums have always existed, and have always [Click here for the full review…]


Wild River Mountain Distillery 3YO Australian Rum – Review

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Apr 232024
 
Wild River Mountain Distillery 3YO Australian Rum - Review

That we get as many interesting rums out of Australia as we do is some kind of miracle. A lot of the current crop of micro-distilleries that have emerged in the last decade have to jump through ten different kind of hoops just to get off the ground, obtain the plant and pay their way while stuff is being made, and that almost presupposes that juice has to be made fast and quick.  Some manage to survive the lean early years, almost all diversify, and others try to put something unique on the table.  A good example of all of [Click here for the full review…]


Holmes Cay Barbados 2002 20 YO Pot Still Rum – Review

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Apr 192024
 
Holmes Cay Barbados 2002 20 YO Pot Still Rum - Review

To hear the social media commentary pouring out of the rumisphere last year, Eric Kaye pulled out some sort of magical rum rabbit from his jock and wowed the rum world with a magnificent one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-decade, 20-YO-rum from Foursquare.  And not just any rum, but a pot still rum, which, as any fan or Foursquare junkie knows, is rare as hen’s teeth (the distillery is world famous for its pot-column blends, not single still distillates).  Holmes Cay is the brainchild and 2018 creation of the above-named Mr. Kaye (he was getting out of the music business at the time and [Click here for the full review…]


Retribution Distillers 2 YO (So far) Aged Rum – Review

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Mar 292024
 
Retribution Distillers 2 YO (So far) Aged Rum - Review

It’s not often that a rum aged just a few years that remains in development is as good or better than its own unaged white predecessor, but somehow, Retribution from the UK has done a fair dinkum job of it. Their white rum was unpretentious, eager to please and a decent drink that did not try to rearrange your innards (as so many feral whites try to do), and I quite liked it.  Its slightly aged cousin is just a smidgen better, and it still isn’t finished or in open release yet. Retribution is a small distillery in Frome (a [Click here for the full review…]


Retribution Distilling Co. Unaged White Rum (Batch #2) – Review

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Mar 242024
 
Retribution Distilling Co. Unaged White Rum (Batch #2) - Review

For a distillery with a name as ominous as Retribution, the owner and distiller or record is actually a fairly genial, easy going gent, who gives off vibes of an avuncular uncle who retires after a hard day’s work wherever, to his cottage in the countryside, where the faithful hound fetches his slippers. Or so the story teller in me supposes. The man behind the company is Richard Lock, who incorporated the micro distillery in 2019 after deciding to go beyond the beers he had been making to that point. His first product was a gin, released in February 2020, [Click here for the full review…]


FNQ (Mt. Uncle) Distillery Iridium “X” 10 YO Australian Rum – Review

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Mar 202024
 
FNQ (Mt. Uncle) Distillery Iridium "X" 10 YO Australian Rum – Review

We’ve heard of both Iridium and Mount Uncle Distillery before: there’s a five year old of that brand that was part of the 2021 advent calendar, and while I didn’t care overmuch for it, I did comment that at a higher strength might make it a better drink. The company – which spun off the rum making business into a separate little outfit called FNQ Rum Company – clearly knew that already, because with this one they amped up the age to 10 years, jacked the strength to 47% and then probably thinking something else was required, aged it in [Click here for the full review…]


San Juan Artisan Distillers Ron Pepón Blanco Puerto Rican Rum – Review

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Mar 152024
 
San Juan Artisan Distillers Ron Pepón Blanco Puerto Rican Rum - Review

In the previous review I remarked that the slightly aged añejo from the relatively new San Juan Artisan Distillers in Puerto Rico, did not impress me very much. This was in spite of the fact that on paper they looked like they had all the plant, equipment, and resources they needed to make something better. A fair number of online comments supported this view: most thought it was a barrel thing, although I did get one remark that resonated, stating (paraphrased) that it’s not a good idea to assume that the physical pieces alone are what make the product great [Click here for the full review…]


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