Ron Caribe Silver Premium Rum – Review

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Jul 262020
 
Ron Caribe Silver Premium Rum - Review

If you believe the marketing blah (which I don’t) then here we have a nice little white rum made by a small craft company, located in the Yucatan peninsula town of Merida, in Mexico. The premises are built on the remains of an old sugar making hacienda and thirty employees labour diligently to hand prepare every bottle. They probably sing as they do so. I dab a single tear from my eye at such tradition-respecting, old-school rum making.  It warms the cockles of my pickled and cynical old heart, truly. And, the rum is quite nice for what it is [Click here for the full review…]


Habitation Velier Muller LL IV/3177 White Rhum – Review

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Jul 222020
 
Habitation Velier Muller LL IV/3177 White Rhum - Review

By now most will be aware of my admiration for unshaven, uncouth and unbathed white rums that reek and stink up the joint and are about as unforgettable as Mike Tyson’s first fights.  They move well away from the elegant and carefully-nurtured long-aged offerings that command high prices and elicit reverent murmurs of genteel appreciation: that’s simply not on the program for these, which seek to hammer your taste buds into the ground without apology. I drink ‘em neat whenever possible, and while no great cocktail shaker myself, I know they make some mixed drinks that ludicrously tasty. So let’s [Click here for the full review…]


Behind Old Monk Rum – A History of Mohan Meakin (India)

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Jul 192020
 
Behind Old Monk Rum - A History of Mohan Meakin (India)

Introduction One of the rum-producing countries about which we don’t know enough is India, home of companies like Rhea, Amrut, Radico Khaitan, Krimpi, Tilaknagar, McDowell’s (part of Diageo) and the subject of today’s biography, Mohan Meakin. Originally it was to form part of the review of their Old Monk Supreme XXX Vatted Rum, but when I delved into the weeds, the “tale grew in the telling” until it was clear that it deserved a full treatment by itself. The Founders and Early Years The company that eventually became Mohan Meakin was founded by a Scottish businessman named Edward Abraham Dyer. [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Nation Panama 18 YO 2009 Edition – Review

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Jul 162020
 
Rum Nation Panama 18 YO 2009 Edition - Review

The Rum Nation Panama 2009 edition exists in a peculiar place of my mind, since it’s the unavailable, long-gone predecessor of the 18 YO Panamanian which RN released in 2010; this in turn was one of the first Panamanian rums that I had tried that wasn’t an indifferently blended bland blah, that possessed more years  and complexity than I had heretofore experienced, and was an all round lovely drink…or so I thought at the time. Nearly a decade later, my opinions of Panamanian rums is no longer so stellar: but in all honesty, to see a rum from Rum Nation [Click here for the full review…]


Old Monk Supreme XXX Old Vatted Rum – Review

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Jul 132020
 
Old Monk Supreme XXX Old Vatted Rum - Review

The Old Monk series of rums, perhaps among the best known to the Western world of those hailing from India, excites a raft of passionate posts whenever it comes up for mention, ranging from enthusiastic fanboy positivity, to disdain spread equally between its lack of disclosure about provenance and make, and the rather unique taste. Neither really holds water, but it is emblematic of both the unstinting praise of adherents who “just like rum” without thinking further, and those who take no cognizance of cultures other than their own and the different tastes that attend to them. That’s unfortunate — [Click here for the full review…]


Nine Leaves “Encrypted” III 2 Year Old Blended Rum – Review

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Jul 092020
 
Nine Leaves "Encrypted" III 2 Year Old Blended Rum - Review

After having written on and off about Yoshiharu Takeuchi’s company Nine Leaves for many years, and watching his reputation and influence grow, it seems almost superfluous to go on about his background in any kind of detail. However, for those new to the company who want to know what the big deal is, it’s a one-man rum-making outfit located in Japan, and Yoshi-san remains its only employee (at least until July 2020, when he takes on an apprentice, so I am reliably informed). Nine Leaves has been producing three kinds of pot-still rums for some time now: six month old [Click here for the full review…]


Bardinet Rhum Negrita (1980s)

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Jul 062020
 
Bardinet Rhum Negrita (1980s)

Rumaniacs Review #117 | 0742 Bardinet was a French company — now part of La Martiniquaise-Bardinet —  formed by Paul Bardinet in 1857 in the south of France: he came up with the not-terribly-original idea of blending various rhums, much as various merchant bottlers were doing across the channel. Arguably their most famous product was the Negrita brand, originally a blend of Reunion, Martinique and Guadeloupe rhums, which was first released in 1886 with the now famous (or infamous) picture of the black girl on the label. That picture, drawn by Max Camis (a famous poster designer and press cartoonist [Click here for the full review…]


Habitation Velier Monymusk 2010 EMB 9 YO – Review

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Jul 012020
 
Habitation Velier Monymusk 2010 EMB 9 YO - Review

As the memories of the Velier Demeraras fades and the Caronis climb in price past the point of reason and into madness, it is good to remember the third major series of rums that Velier has initiated, which somehow does not get all the appreciation and braying ra-ra publicity so attendant on the others. This is the Habitation Velier collection, and to my mind it has real potential of eclipsing the Caronis, or even those near-legendary Guyanese rums which are so firmly anchored to Luca’s street cred. I advertise the importance of the series in this fashion because too often [Click here for the full review…]


RomDeluxe R2 “Wild Jaguar” Enmore 17 YO – Review

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Jun 282020
 
RomDeluxe R2 "Wild Jaguar" Enmore 17 YO - Review

On the first day and at the opening hour of the 2019 Berlin Rumfest, a motley collection of scruffy rum folks met at the back of the hall. Alex Sandu (the young Oxford-based Romanian barman who’s now making a name for himself on the Rum Barrel site) was talking with me about what it takes to manage and maintain a rum site. Indy and Jazz Singh of Rumcask and Skylark Spirits drifted by and sat down, and we all sighed rapturously with the memory of a rum session we had had at Lebensstern rum bar the evening before. Nicolai Wachmann, [Click here for the full review…]


That Boutique-y Rum Co. Casa Santana 12 YO Colombia Rum – Review

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Jun 242020
 
That Boutique-y Rum Co. Casa Santana 12 YO Colombia Rum - Review

It’s a peculiar facet of That Boutique-y Rum Company (Master of Malt’s rum arm) and their marketing, that Pete Holland, their brand ambassador (he has some other title, but this is what he is) is so completely identified with the brand. As I’ve noted before, that’s largely because of his inclusion on the brightly coloured, easter-egg-filled, self-referential labels on the company’s rums, done by the talented Jim of Jim’ll Paint It.  And yet, he looms larger in memory than in actuality – when you go back and count, there are 33 releases to date and Pete is (to our detriment) [Click here for the full review…]


Clement Tres Vieux Rhum 2000 “Distiller Edition” – Review

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Jun 222020
 
Clement Tres Vieux Rhum 2000 "Distiller Edition" - Review

Clement has a stable line of releases that have remained consistent for a long time – the “Bar and Cocktail” range of mixers and the “Classic” mid-level bottlings of the Ambre, Vieux, Canne Bleu and three blancs (40º, 50º, 55º)’. There is also the “Prestige” range consisting of the VSOP, 6YO, 10YO, single cask, Cuvée Homère, the XO, and that famed set of really aged millésimes which comprised the original XO — the 1952, 1970 and 1976.  And for those with more money than they know what to do with, the Carafe Cristal, ultimate top of the line for the [Click here for the full review…]


Savanna Rhum Traditionnel Vieux 2005 “Intense” 5YO (Cognac) – Review

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Jun 182020
 
Savanna Rhum Traditionnel Vieux 2005 “Intense” 5YO (Cognac) – Review

Savanna is probably one of the most exciting distilleries out there for high-ester loving rum chums, with a reputation growing by leaps and bounds, and not solely because of their own superb HERR 10 YO, or the Johnny-come-lately Habitation Velier HERR white (which was such an amazing piece of work that whole virtual forests have been clear cut to provide the electronic paper for the many online reviews about it, and I’ve heard of grown men bursting into tears at the mere sight of one in the wild). But leaving aside such Himalayan peaks, it’s good to remember that Savanna’s [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Francisco Montero 50th Anniversary Rum – Review

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Jun 152020
 
Ron Francisco Montero 50th Anniversary Rum - Review

Francisco Montero is, unusually enough, a Spanish rum making concern, and the website has the standard founding myth of one man wanting to make rum and going after his dream and establishing a company in Granada to do so in 1963.  Initially the company used sugar from cane (!!) grown around southern Spain to make their rums, but over time this supply dried up and now in the 21st century they source molasses from a number of different locations around the world, which they distill and age into various rums in their portfolio. Francisco Montero continues operations to this day, [Click here for the full review…]


Habitation Velier Longpond “TECA” 2005 14 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jun 112020
 
Habitation Velier Longpond "TECA" 2005 14 Year Old Rum - Review

    There are few people who tried the quartet of the Velier black-bottled Long Pond series that was released (or should that read “unleashed”?) in 2018, who didn’t have an opinion on the snarling beastie that was the 2003 NRJ TECA. That was a rank, reeking, sneering, foul-smelling animal of a rum, unwashed, uncouth, unafraid, and it blasted its way through each and every unwary palate on the planet.  If Luca Gargano, the boss of Velier, wanted to provide a rum that would show what a high ester beefcake could do, and to educate us as to why it [Click here for the full review…]


Austrian Empire Navy Rum (Cognac Cask) – Review

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Jun 082020
 
Austrian Empire Navy Rum (Cognac Cask) - Review

Part of the problem The major problem I have with this rum is that it simply tastes artificial – “fake,” in today’s updated lexicon – and that’s entirely aside from its labelling, which we’ll get into in a minute.  For the moment, I’d suggest you follow me through a quick tasting, starting with a nose that reminds one disconcertingly of a Don Papa – oak, boatloads of vanilla, icing sugar, honey, some indeterminate fleshy fruits and more vanilla. This does not, I’m afraid, enthuse.    In spite of its 46.5% strength (ah, the good old days when this was considered [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Enmore 1998 Full Proof 9 YO Old Demerara Rum – Review

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Jun 032020
 
Velier Enmore 1998 Full Proof 9 YO Old Demerara Rum - Review

It will come as some surprise to anyone reading this review, when I say that there is a certain pointlessness now, to reviewing a Velier rum from The Age.  After all, this is a very young rum, not considered one of the Legends like the Skeldon or Port Mourant series, it’s practically unfindable, quite expensive when you can, and nowadays you’re more likely to find an ounce of Unobtainium than one of these unicorns.  Also, 2007 was not noted for the richness of its releases — only the LBI 1998 and the Versailles 1998 were offered that year, both also [Click here for the full review…]


Dry Cane Extra Light Superior White Rum (1970s)

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May 312020
 
Dry Cane Extra Light Superior White Rum (1970s)

Rumaniacs Review #116 | 0732 Dry Cane UK had several light white rums in its portfolio – some were 37.5% ABV, some were Barbados only, some were 40%, some Barbados and Guyanese blends.  All were issued in the 1970s and maybe even as late as the 1980s, after which the trail goes cold and the rums dry up, so to speak.  This bottle however, based on photos on auction sites, comes from the 1970s in the pre-metric era when the strength of 40% ABV was still referred to as 70º in the UK. It probably catered to the tourist, minibar, [Click here for the full review…]


SMWS R 11.3 Worthy Park 7YO Rum (“Crème Brûlée Flambé”) – Review

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May 272020
 
SMWS R 11.3 Worthy Park 7YO Rum (“Crème Brûlée Flambé”) – Review

Anyone from my generation who grew up in the West Indies knows of the scalpel-sharp satirical play “Smile Orange,” written by that great Jamaican playwright, Trevor Rhone, and made into an equally funny film of the same name in 1976.  It is quite literally one of the most hilarious theatre experiences of my life, though perhaps an islander might take more away from it than an expat. Why do I mention this irrelevancy?  Because I was watching the YouTube video of the film that day in Berlin when I was sampling the Worthy Park series R 11.3, and though the [Click here for the full review…]


The Real McCoy 10 Year Old Rum – Review

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May 242020
 
The Real McCoy 10 Year Old Rum - Review

No one these days needs any introduction to the Real McCoy series of rums, which Bailey Pryor released in 2013 in conjunction with Foursquare Distillery (another name requiring no elaboration). He was inspired, so the founder’s myth goes, to try his hand at rum after making a documentary on the Prohibition rum runner of yore for whom the phrase “The Real McCoy” is named, since said gent gave pure value for money and didn’t try to gyp his customers.  You could almost say that this is the first instance of a Barbados rum being given a name that supposedly touts [Click here for the full review…]


United Rum Merchants Black Heart Rum (1970s/1980s)

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May 202020
 
United Rum Merchants Black Heart Rum (1970s/1980s)

Rumaniacs Review #115 | 0728 This rum is a companion of the various UK merchant bottlers’ rums which were common in the 1970s and 1980s. Examples are Lamb’s 70º Demerara Navy, Four Bells Finest Navy Rum, Mainbrace, Red Duster Finest Navy, Old Vatted Demerara rum, and so on.  Many are made by now defunct companies and were Navy wannabes, or traded in on the name without being anything of the kind. This one is an oddity since it was made by United Rum Merchants, that conglomerate which had swallowed up Lamb’s, Keelings and Dingwall Norris: they did supply rums to [Click here for the full review…]


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