The Lone Caner – Page 16 – A Solo Reviewer's Take on Rums

Rom Deluxe RDL #4 (2016) (Barbados, Foursquare 11YO)

Nov 112021

Rumaniacs Review #129 | 0863 Rom Deluxe, the Danish company whose very first release and company biography was profiled last week, ended up making a total of seven initial bottlings, all of which were more or less non-commercial, and served primarily to establish the small company’s bona fides around the country. They are long since only to be found either in some collector’s back shelf, unlabelled and perhaps even unremembered, or in Rom Deluxe’s own shelves. As a comment on the many years that Rom Deluxe was only a small hobby outfit, observe that six of these seven bottlings were [Click here for the full review…]

Notes on the WIRD “Rockley” Still

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Nov 092021

This is a re-post of an addendum to the review of the Cadenhead Green Label Barbados 1986 18 YO Rum, which went up in August 2021. At that time, although much had been written or quoted about the “Rockley still rums”, some of it was out of date and some was plain wrong. So I gave a brief rundown of the matter in that review — but now, after a few months, I feel it should best be in a small post of its own that can be updated as new information becomes available (as it has), hence this revised [Click here for the full review…]

Opinion – One Year Into /r/RumSerious

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Nov 082021

In October of 2020, after some months of thought, I created the new subreddit of /r/rumserious with a few words that explained my reasoning that something smaller and more focused was needed (if only by me). I felt, then and now, that Reddit permitted a long form narrative flow and user discourse that was and is far superior to brief one liners that permeate too many social media platforms. Their brevity does not encourage subtleties of expression and well-argued thinking – rather the opposite: they promote one-liners, zingers, binary arguments, black and white commentaries that can be expressed without thought [Click here for the full review…]

Rom Deluxe (Denmark)

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Nov 072021

For such a newly established company (in rum years, anyway), Rom Deluxe as created a rather enviable visibility quotient for itself. Their near iconic “Wild Series” of rums in particular are not only strikingly eye-catching but boast several entries on the list of strongest rums ever issued, and this goes right back to the issuance of the first one in the series, the Wild Tiger (a Jamaican DOK from Hampden), which I reviewed with equal parts fear and exhileration. They have branched out and expanded into other aspects of the rum business and while they are not quite on [Click here for the full review…]

Rom Deluxe RDL #1 – Dominican Republic (2016)

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Nov 042021

Rom Deluxe RDL #1 - Dominican Republic (2016)

Rumaniacs Review #128 | 0862 Few outside Denmark will know or even remember what Rom Deluxe issued back at the beginning of their existence. The Danish company made its international (or at least European) debut in 2019 with the stunningly designed and smartly chosen “Wild Series” (now into R.19 which I call “Po”), and for most people, its history begins there. However, it has been in existence since 2016 when three friends — Claus Andersen, Thomas Nielsen and Lasse Bjørklund — came together to establish the small hobby-company and their very first release was the anonymously titled rum of RDL [Click here for the full review…]

Savanna Lontan 57° Grand Arome Unaged White Rum (Batch #2 2018) – Review

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Oct 312021

Savanna Lontan 57° Grand Arome Unaged White Rum (Batch #2 2018) - Review

In the previous review I wrote about the Reunion-made Savanna HERR Blanc 57º White Rum (second batch, from 2018), and was surprised and pleased at the reaction it elicited: quite a few comments were made on various platforms, showing a really positive feeling about the rum. Today we will, as promised, go deeper into its brother rum, released in tandem with it each time one was issued, also 57% ABV, and also stuffed to the gills with an ester count that leaves the rum geek crowd with slightly trembling knees, quivering hands and clenching…well, you get my drift. The “57” [Click here for the full review…]

Savanna HERR Blanc 57º White Rum (Batch #2 2018) – Review

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Oct 262021

Savanna HERR Blanc 57º White Rum (Batch #2 2018) - Review

The distillery of Savanna (on Reunion island in the Indian Ocean) is putting out so many collections and individual bottlings, so fast, that even something as relatively recent as this rum from 2018 has very much fallen by the wayside, recalled by few but high ester rum geeks and Savanna lovers. It suggests something of the difference between them and an independent bottler, in that there is no single strongly-visible voice that stands in for them and their wares. I make this point because when you come down to it, this rum is very similar to the Habitation Velier HERR [Click here for the full review…]

L’Esprit Port Mourant 12 YO 2005-2018 Guyana Rum – Review

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Oct 192021

L'Esprit Port Mourant 12 YO 2005-2018 Guyana Rum - Review

DDL has, since 2016, capitalized on the worldwide fame of the heritage stills which the independents had forged during and before the current rum renaissance (though it is a peculiarity of the culture that many Guyanese remain completely unaware of the reverence they’re held in around the globe). They have released several editions of the Rare Collection, and also begun to dabble in some interesting experimentals, as well as standard proof editions of the individual wooden still marques (rather than blends). Beginners and Guyanese rum lovers are spoiled for choice these days in a way I can only envy….where was [Click here for the full review…]

Cavalier White Antigua Rum – Review

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Oct 142021

“Cavalier” was once the brand name of rums released by the Antigua Distillery on the island of the same name. Even the predecessor to the famed-but-faded English Harbour 1981 25 Year Old was originally a Cavalier branded rum, and a very good one, too…for its time, anyway. But somewhere in the ‘aughts the English Harbour brand was created to be the basket for more upscale, upmarket rums – starting with the five year old and moving up in age – and the Cavalier moniker was left for the company’s “entry level” gold and white and 151 rums….which of course meant [Click here for the full review…]

Westerhall Plantation 5 Year Old Grenada Rum – Review

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Oct 112021

Westerhall Plantation 5 Year Old Grenada Rum - Review

Unlike the White Jack rum which is definitely a Rumaniacs entry due to its reformulation, the Westerhall Plantation Rum remains recognizably the same as when it was first released in 1989, and there seems to be no movement afoot to change the title either (even after the brouhaha over Maison Ferrand’s rum brand name in 2019 and 2020). The Plantation Rum is a five year old product, the first to be exported, beginning the year of its introduction: previously, all rums were either for local consumption or for bulk export. Oddly, though, it’s referred to on their site as their [Click here for the full review…]

Foursquare Triptych Single Blended Rum – Review

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Oct 072021

Foursquare Triptych Single Blended Rum - Review

In my more whimsical moments, I like to think Richard Seale was sweating a bit as he prepared the Triptych. Bottled in November 2016 and released in the 2017 season, it came right on the heels of the hugely successful and awe-inducing unicorn of the 2006 10 Year Old which had almost immediately ascended to near cult status and stayed there ever since. How could any follow-up match that? It was like coming up on stage after Mighty Liar just finished belting out “She Want Pan” hoping at least not too suck too bad in comparison. He need not have [Click here for the full review…]

Westerhall White Jack Rum (Grenada)(2010s)

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Oct 042021

Westerhall White Jack Rum (Grenada)(2010s)

Rumaniacs Review #127 | 0855 To be clear, there remains a Westerhall White Jack rum in current production. It’s not this one. It has been suggested that it’s the same as the Jack Iron rum, just made into a white. That’s a harder call, but I doubt that too, because there’s a bit more complexity to this one than the Jack Iron where the reverse might have been expected. In any case, this version has been discontinued. Even by 2015 when The Fat Rum Pirate penned one of the only reviews of this 70% white Grenadian overproof, it had already [Click here for the full review…]

Key Rums of the World – Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve Blended Rum

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Sep 302021

Key Rums of the World - Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve Blended Rum

After only four years, the Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve rum has become so quietly ubiquitous, so well known and so widespread, that the bombshell it and all its brothers dropped on the rum world in 2017 has almost been forgotten. Even in the short time since its coming-out party, it has garnered a serious reputation for itself and reminds us all of the great rums emerging from Jamaica. One of the criteria I have for inclusion in the series is availability and longevity, and less than half a decade of being on the shelves might not strike some as [Click here for the full review…]

SMWS R10.1 Trinidad Distillers 1991 25 YO Rum (“Carnival Concerto”) – Review

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Sep 272021

SMWS R10.1 Trinidad Distillers 1991 25 YO Rum ("Carnival Concerto") - Review

Just in case rums that have mated with a two-by-four are not your thing, kiss your significant other tenderly and take a deep heaving breath before sipping SMWS’s first Trini offering, because at 63.4% and with this profile, you’ll need a fall-back plan. I mean, there’s an enormous expanding blast radius of sharp aromas and tastes billowing around this thing that makes such prudence not just an option, but a requirement. Reading the stats on the bottle gives rise to some serious anticipation, which makes it all the more peculiar that it ends up being so…ordinary. Take a careful sniff. [Click here for the full review…]

Velier Uitvlugt 1988 17 Year Old Demerara Rum – Review

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Sep 222021

Velier Uitvlugt 1988 17 Year Old Demerara Rum - Review

€57. Think about that for a minute. That’s how much this rum cost when it was first released in 2005. Good luck finding it anywhere near that, now. By 2019 the bottle price had already climbed past £1800 and as of this writing it is closing in on three grand on the auction listings. And it’s not even the most famed or the best of the Demeraras, because the unicorns most avidly sought after and collected tend to be the PM and Skeldons, and maybe the Albions and UF30E. For some reason, Diamond, LBI, Blairmont and Uitvlugt rums from the [Click here for the full review…]

Novo Fogo Barrel Aged Cachaça – Review

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Sep 162021

Last time around we discussed a Brazilian cachaça from the environmentally astute company Novo Fogo which they called “Chameleon” — it was aged about a year and meant to quietly blend in to the various mixes for which it was destined (hence the name). I felt it succeeded reasonably well on its own grounds, and the next step up the food chain, the “Barrel Aged” version that is the subject of today’s review, also follows in that tradition — though in my opinion, less successfully. The details are pretty much the same with respect to the company (I’ve added it [Click here for the full review…]

Moon Import 1982 22 Year Old Blended Jamaica Rum – Review

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Sep 122021

Moon Import 1982 22 Year Old Blended Jamaica Rum - Review

It’s unclear to me what Moon Import thought it was doing back in 2004 when they blended this rum. They had done blends before, something of a departure from other Italian independents who since the 1970s had thought to bootstrap their expertise with single cask whisky selections into commensurate skill with single cask rums … but few except maybe Rum Nation (which was formed nearly two decades after Moon Import) took blends seriously. Even when released as such, for the most part rums made that way tended to be multiple barrels of a single distillery, usually a particular year and [Click here for the full review…]

Novo Fogo Cachaça “Chameleon” – Review

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Sep 092021

In 2017 I wrote about a cachaça I had tried in Toronto from a Brazilian company named Novo Fogo, which means “New Fire” in Portuguese. That was an unaged, one-year-rested “Silver” cachaça that I liked quite a bit, and in doing my research after the fact, I discovered the company also had a number of other such spirits in the portfolio, resolved to try what I could, and subsequently scouted them out in the years that followed. This cachaça, then, is the next one up the ladder for Novo Fogo. It is a blend of both aged and unaged spirits, [Click here for the full review…]

Velier Caroni 1996 21 YO Extra Strong 100º “Imperial Proof” Rum – Review

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Sep 062021

Velier Caroni 1996 21 YO Extra Strong 100º "Imperial Proof" Rum - Review

By now, the story has entered into the folklore of rum: in October 2004 Luca Gargano and the (late) photographer Fredi Marcarini, sniffing out rums from around the Caribbean to round out Velier’s rum portfolio and being dissatisfied with Angostura’s offerings, decided to visit the Caroni distillery, even though it had already been closed for a year. Arriving at the premises and being let in, they were shown a warehouse where several thousand barrels dating back more than twenty years had been stored (and implied to be overlooked, if not actually forgotten). Most of the barrels were bought by Velier [Click here for the full review…]

Our Rum & Spirits Enmore MEV 1990 24 YO Guyana Rum – Review

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Sep 022021

Our Rum & Spirits Enmore MEV 1990 24 YO Guyana Rum - Review

One of the German independent Our Rum & Spirits’ earlier bottlings is the Guyanese Enmore from 1990 which was bottled in 2015, a year after they released their first one (an 11 YO Diamond). It’s a respectable 24 (European) years old, a solid anvil-dropping 61.2% ABV, 178 bottles, and of course, it’s not from the Enmore coffey but from the Versailles single wooden pot still, which was the still-in-residence at Enmore Estate back then, before everything got shipped off to Diamond around 2000 in The Great Consolidation. By now I’ve been trying various single-still offerings from Guyana for years, usually [Click here for the full review…]

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