Bristol Spirits Labourdonnais Mauritius White Rhum – Review

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Jun 102021
 
Bristol Spirits Labourdonnais Mauritius White Rhum - Review

As I remarked in a review opener last year, the UK indie Bristol Spirits appears to have fallen somewhat out of fashion of late, and its releases are not held up as ecstatically as they used to be, nor are reviews of their products either forthcoming or swooned over the way they used to be (that may be a function of the current pandemic as well). However, neither that nor the somewhat moribund website of the company should be taken as an indicator of any loss of focus or lack of activity. Mr. John Barret, the owner, with whom I [Click here for the full review…]


Revisiting the Stroh 80º / 160

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Jun 082021
 
Revisiting the Stroh 80º / 160

The Stroh 160 is the North American version of the famed Austrian 80º punch in the face.  In Austria, where it was first made in 1832 by Sebastian Stroh when he came up with the “secret combo of herbs and spices” (sound familiar?), it remains a cultural institution and has actually got some form of a protected designation there. In Europe it is seen as a bartender’s mix for ski resorts because of its use in the hunter’s punch, or Jagertee, while in the US its use centers around cocktails like Polynesian- or tropical- themed drinks that require an overproof [Click here for the full review…]


Penny Blue XO Mauritius Rum (Batch #002) – Review

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Jun 032021
 
Penny Blue XO Mauritius Rum (Batch #002) - Review

This is a rum whose label tickles the trivia gene lurking within me.  So in the interest of science and the perhaps boring rehash of stuff some of you already know but some of you don’t, let’s go through the background and the details First of all, that name. Like Fabio Rossi of Rum Nation putting the pictures of the old stamps he once collected on the labels of his rums, the makers of Penny Blue did the same. Not to be confused with the Two-Penny Blue issued in the UK (the second postage stamp ever made (in 1840, following [Click here for the full review…]


Key Rums of the World – Doorly’s 12 YO (Barbados)

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May 312021
 
Key Rums of the World - Doorly's 12 YO (Barbados)

In my own rather middling 2017 review of the Doorly’s 12 I remarked “It’s a well-made, serviceable, standard-proof rum for those who have never gone further (and don’t want to)…and remains a rum of enduring popularity.”  Rereading that review, re-tasting the rum, and thinking about all the developments in the rumworld between then and now, I would not change the review – but must concede that it works precisely because of those things that at the time I sniffed at, and retains its widespread appeal to both new drinkers and old in a way that cannot easily be discounted.   We’re [Click here for the full review…]


Cadenhead’s Guyana Rum “VSG” 1990 Enmore Distillery 13 YO – Review

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May 272021
 
Cadenhead's Guyana Rum "VSG" 1990 Enmore Distillery 13 YO - Review

Cadenhead’s defiantly massive codpiece, this 73.6% Mudland slugger, was among the strongest rums they ever unleashed upon an unsuspecting public, in 2003 ; it took no prisoners and provided no apologies and was stubbornly, intransigently, mulishly what it was – an undiluted can of pure whup-ass.  It must have scared the living bejeezus out of so many people when it was released, that all existing bottles were carefully hidden and buried and squirelled away, and blood oaths were sworn to preserve forever the silence of the grave upon its owners.  Few rums this powerful outside the famed 151s were ever [Click here for the full review…]


Rhumerie de la Reunion (Savanna) “Varangue” Rhum Grand Arôme – 1990s

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May 242021
 
Rhumerie de la Reunion (Savanna) "Varangue" Rhum Grand Arôme - 1990s

Rumaniacs Review #R-125 | 0823 Many of the rhums from the Reunion Island distillery of Savanna are a high-ester rum-geek’s dreams and fantasies: they are molasses-based, and benefit from longer fermentation times and a pass through their Savalle copper column still. The term for these rhums with congener levels greater than 800g/HLPA and minimum ester levels of 500g/HLPA is Grand Arôme, but Savanna has branded them with other names, now and in the past.  Since 2003 or so they have been called the Lontan series of rums — this is a play on the French creole words long temps or [Click here for the full review…]


1423 S.B.S. Barbados (WIRD) 2000 16 YO Rum – Review

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May 202021
 
1423 S.B.S. Barbados (WIRD) 2000 16 YO Rum - Review

These days, most rumistas are aware of the Scandinavian company 1423 and their upscale rum brand of the SBS (Single Barrel Selections, even though they sometimes aren’t). In the last five years this small Danish outfit has become a much bigger Danish outfit, not just bottling the upmarket connoisseur’s series of the cask strength single barrel releases, but whole blended lines like the Compañero rums, and occasionally horse trading barrels and supplies with other companies (the Romdeluxe R.1 Wild Tiger, for example, was originally a 1423 import). But back when this Barbadian rum came on the scene in 2016, they [Click here for the full review…]


Secret Treasures Old Barbados (WIRR) 1995 8 YO Rum – Review

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May 162021
 
Secret Treasures Old Barbados (WIRR) 1995 8 YO Rum - Review

More than a few rums of Secret Treasures’ “classic” era with those distinctive labels, were all bottled in the year 2003.  When we consider that for years – decades, actually – the original owner of the brand, Fassbind, had been making grappa, schnapps and other spirits, then it’s not too surprising to consider that when they first went into rums, they didn’t mess around with a single barrel bottling, but picked up a number of casks all at the same time and released them simultaneously. So far I can’t find any references to rums from ST released prior to 2003 [Click here for the full review…]


Secret Treasures Old Venezuela 1992 11 YO Rum – Review

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May 132021
 
Secret Treasures Old Venezuela 1992 11 YO Rum - Review

There are some older bottles in the review queue for products from what I term the “classic” era of the Swiss / German outfit of Secret Treasures, and it’s perhaps time to push them out the door in case some curious person ever wants to research them for an auction listing or something.  Because what Secret Treasures are making now is completely different from what they did then, as I remarked in my brief company notes for last week’s entry on the “Carony” rum they released in 2003. In short, from a traditional indie bottler who exactingly and carefully selects [Click here for the full review…]


Secret Treasures Trinidad (Caroni) 1996 7 Year Old Rum – Review

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May 102021
 
Secret Treasures Trinidad (Caroni) 1996 7 Year Old Rum - Review

In the maelstrom of ongoing indie releases coming at us from every direction almost every month, it’s easy to overlook some of the older rums, or even some of the older companies. Secret Treasures is one of these — I had discovered their charms on the same trip where I found the first Veliers, all those long years ago, at a time when the concept of independent bottlers was a relatively small scale phenomenon. Back then I bought the company’s Enmore 1989, and both Grandma Caner and I liked it so much we polished off the thing in under a [Click here for the full review…]


Savanna Lontan Traditionnel Grand Arôme (LMDW 60th Anniversary) White Rum- Review

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May 062021
 
Savanna Lontan Traditionnel Grand Arôme (LMDW 60th Anniversary) White Rum- Review

The rums of the Reunion Island company Savanna span a wide stylistic gamut, depending on the source material (juice or molasses, for they utilize both), which still made them, and how many esters stuck around for the party (this is particularly the case with the high ester still Savanna casually uses to smack the unsuspecting and unwary into next week).   Perhaps taking a leaf out of Velier’s book, they also release a whole raft of “sets” or types – for example, the Lontan (Grand Arôme / high ester rhums based on long fermentation times of up to 15 days), Creol [Click here for the full review…]


Moon Import Enmore 1988-2011 23 YO Demerara Rum (Sherry Wood) – Review

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May 032021
 
Moon Import Enmore 1988-2011 23 YO Demerara Rum (Sherry Wood) - Review

This is not the first Demerara rum that the venerable Italian indie bottler Moon Import has aged in sherry barrels: the superb 1974 30 Year Old, and several other over their limited rums releases, have also shared in this peculiarity.  However, the results are somewhat hit or miss, because while the 30 YO scored a solid and deserved 90 points, this one doesn’t play in that league, however well-aged it may be. It’s entirely possible that this is because the rum is not an Enmore still rum at all, as the label implies, but from the Versailles single wooden pot [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes Dillon 2002 13 YO Martinique Rhum – Review

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Apr 292021
 
Compagnie des Indes Dillon 2002 13 YO Martinique Rhum - Review

The small Martinique brand (once a distillery) of Dillon is not one which makes rhums that raises fiercely acquisitive instincts in the cockles of anyone’s hearts, if one goes by the dearth of any kind of online commentary on their stuff. When was the last time you saw anyone, even on the major French language Facebook rhum clubs, crow enthusiastically about getting one? And yet Dillon has a complete – if small – set of rhums: aged versions, blancs, mixers etc.  And those that I have tried (not many, which is my loss) have been quite good.  Today’s subject is [Click here for the full review…]


Isla del Ron Guadeloupe 1998 15 Year Old Rhum – Review

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Apr 262021
 
Isla del Ron Guadeloupe 1998 15 Year Old Rhum - Review

Isla del Ron is one of the smaller independent rum labels out of Europe, such as have sprung up with greater frequency over the last decade. It’s a division of its parent company Unique Liquids, founded around 2009, and located in north central Germany, between Dortmund and Hanover. To add to the complexity, it owns the related company Malts of Scotland – not entirely a surprise, since Thomas Ewers, the founder, likes his whisky perhaps more than rum. Since 2012, the company has produced about 22 various single barrel rums from all the usual suspects around the Caribbean and Central [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Nation Rare Collection “British Guyana” 10 YO Blend 2009-2019

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Apr 222021
 
Rum Nation Rare Collection "British Guyana" 10 YO Blend 2009-2019

One of the things that irritates me about this blended rum from Guyana which Rum Nation released in 2019, is the carelessness of the front label design.  I mean, seriously, how is it possible that “British Guyana” can actually be on a rum label in the 21st century, when Guyana has not been British anything since 1966 and when it was, it was spelled “Guiana”? Are designers really that clueless? And lest you think this is just me having a surfeit of my daily snarky-pills, think about it this way: if they couldn’t care enough to get their facts right [Click here for the full review…]


Depaz Rhum Agricole Blanc “Cuvee de la Montagne” – Review

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Apr 182021
 
Depaz Rhum Agricole Blanc "Cuvee de la Montagne" - Review

When most people spend money on rhum agricoles, they tend to go for the upscale aged (“vieux”) editions, those handily aged expressions or millesimes which have tamed the raw white juice dripping off the still by ageing them for several years. Consumers like the smooth sipping experience of an aged brown spirit, and not many consider that while such rhums do indeed taste lovely and are worth their price tag, the ageing process does take away something too – some of the fresh, snappy bite of a white rhum that hasn’t yet been altered in any way by wood-spirit interaction [Click here for the full review…]


That Boutique-y Rum Co. Engenhos do Norte Madeira 7 Year Old Rum – Review

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Apr 112021
 
That Boutique-y Rum Co. Engenhos do Norte Madeira 7 Year Old Rum - Review

After a decade of observing the (mostly Europe-based) independent bottlers, I think it can be said with some assurance that they tend to stick with The Tried and True in their first years. In other words, they source and release rums from the canonical distilleries in the familiar countries – Guyana, Barbados, St. Lucia, or Jamaica, with occasional fliers from Belize, Cuba, Fiji, Australia or Trinidad being seen as second order efforts. When it comes to distinguishing themselves from the herd, few show much real imagination.  Oh, for sure the Compagnie des Indes releases private blends like the Boulet de [Click here for the full review…]


1423 S.B.S. Jamaica 2000 (Hampden) 16 Year Old Rum – Review

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Apr 082021
 
1423 S.B.S. Jamaica 2000 (Hampden) 16 Year Old Rum - Review

2016 seems like such a long time ago with respect to Hampden rums.  Back then we got them in dribs and drabs, from scotch whisky makers (who could rarely be bothered to mention the distillery) and the occasional indie bottler like Berry Bros. & Rudd, Compagnie des Indes, Rom Deluxe, Renegade or Murray McDavid. That all changed in 2018 when Velier concluded a deal to be their worldwide distributor and the PR machine roared into overdrive.  Since then, Hampden has become one of the boutique rums du jour, and they sell out almost as fast as the Foursquare ECS rums. [Click here for the full review…]


Saint James Rhum Blanc Agricole “Imperial Blanc” – Review

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Apr 042021
 
Saint James Rhum Blanc Agricole "Imperial Blanc" - Review

Back in 2019 before the world changed, I was fortunate enough (and for the first time ever), to get a “blogger” badge at the Berlin Rumfest.  This did not, of course, class with the far cooler “Exhibitor” or “Judge” badge that others ostentatiously wore front and center.  Nor did it come with any kind of perks: I did not get let in free; it conferred no free samples or extra goodies; I was not plied with hats, shirts, glasses, and the thing absolutely did not give free entrance to master classes and seminars. In fact, it was so small and [Click here for the full review…]


Barrels & Butts, Casks & Kegs: The Containers of Rum

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Mar 312021
 
Barrels & Butts, Casks & Kegs: The Containers of Rum

Introduction Although most of us are aware of the fact that rum, like many other spirits, is aged in barrels, it’s not always clear how large (or small) those barrels actually are, why they are called what they are, or what their original functions were. We just hear “barrels”, visualize a cylindrical container made of of wooden staves held in place by three bands, and think American oak, Limousin, French, amburana, or what have you, and move on. Occasionally we would read something like “refill barrel” or “hogshead” and if we have any more in depth queries, a trip to [Click here for the full review…]


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