Ron Barceló Imperial Premium Blend (12 YO) – Review

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Feb 172020
 
Ron Barceló Imperial Premium Blend (12 YO) - Review

Barceló has slipped somewhat in our mental map of rum companies to watch, which comes as no surprise to those noting the current dominance which the Big Countries and the Big Names have in defining what we “should” be drinking. But ⅓ of the “Three Bs” of the Domincan Republic has been around for a while, releasing their light Spanish-style rons day in and day out, and if their primary markets are elsewhere than the homes of the online commentariat who flog Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados almost without pause, then at least their level of expertise shows no sign of [Click here for the full review…]


Cadenhead Green Label Demerara 12 YO (Laphroaig Cask) – Review

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Feb 122020
 
Cadenhead Green Label Demerara 12 YO (Laphroaig Cask) – Review

What a difference the passage of years makes. In 2010, a mere year after my long rum journey began, I came across and wrote about the Cadenhead 12 YO and gave it a rather dismissive rating of 76, remarking that while I liked it and while it had some underlying harmony, the decision to mature it in Laphroaig casks led to “not a rum, but some kind of bastardized in-the-middle product that isn’t fish or fowl.” Later I began searching for it again, having in the interim gained rather more respect for what Cadenhead was doing.  The Campbelltown-based company of [Click here for the full review…]


Lemon Hart Royal Navy Demerara Rum 151 (1970s)

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Feb 092020
 
Lemon Hart Royal Navy Demerara Rum 151 (1970s)

Rumaniacs Review #110 | 0700 Lemon Hart needs no further introduction, since the brand is well known and reasonably regarded – I’ve written about quite a few of their products.  Their star has lost some lustre of late (though one of their recent 151 releases from 2012 or thereabouts found much favour with me), and it’s interesting that Ed Hamilton’s own line of 151s was specifically introduced to challenge the equivalent LH, if not actually supplant it.  With so much going on at the high end of the proof-list these days, it’s good to remember what Lemon Hart was capable [Click here for the full review…]


Berry Bros. & Rudd Hampden 1990 17 YO Jamaican Rum – Review

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Feb 052020
 
Berry Bros. & Rudd Hampden 1990 17 YO Jamaican Rum - Review

Hampden is now one of the belles du jour of the New Jamaicans, but it’s been on the horizon for much longer than that, though sadly much of its output from the Elder Days was sold outside Jamaica as a sort of miscellaneous bulk item, to be bastardized and mixed and blended and lost in the drab ocean of commercial rums that made up most of what was sold up to ten years ago. Never mind, though, because these days they’ve more than made up for that by issuing rums under their own estate brand, getting the single-barrel limited-edition treatment [Click here for the full review…]


Helios Distillery “Teeda” 21 Year Old Japanese Rum – Review

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Feb 032020
 
Helios Distillery "Teeda" 21 Year Old Japanese Rum - Review

The Okinawan Helios Distillery came to greater attention (and reknown) of the western rum scene in 2019, when they presented a white rum and a 5 Year Old that were impressive right out of the gate.  Perhaps we should not have been surprised, given that the company has been in the business since 1961 – it is supposedly the oldest such distillery in the country. Then, it was called Taiyou, and made cheap rum blends from sugar cane, both to sell to the occupying American forces, and to save rice for food and sake production. In the decades since, they’ve [Click here for the full review…]


Rhea Distillers Gold Rum – Review

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Jan 302020
 
Rhea Distillers Gold Rum - Review

India is one of these countries that makes a lot of rum but is not reknowned for it — and if you doubt that, name five Indian rums, quick.  Aside from a few global brands like Amrut (who are more into whiskies but also dabbled in rum with the Old Port Deluxe and the Two Indies rums) rum makers from there seem, for the moment, quite happy to sell into their internal or regional markets and eschew going abroad, and are equally indifferent to the foreign rum festival circuit where perhaps they could get more exposure or distribution deals. Perhaps [Click here for the full review…]


The El Dorado Rare Collection – Releases I, II & III and Subsequent Developments

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Jan 282020
 
The El Dorado Rare Collection - Releases I, II & III and Subsequent Developments

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 | 0696 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 | 0693 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…]


Casino 50⁰ Hungarian “Rum” – Review

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Dec 262019
 
Casino 50⁰ Hungarian "Rum" - Review

Part of the problem with this “rum” is that the bottle itself doesn’t say who made it (the notations refer to the “Budapest Liquor Industry” and “Product of Hungary”) – after some sleuthing around I tracked it down to a company called Zwack, which is famed in the country for its high-alcohol herbal bitters called Unicum (one of the national drinks of Hungary), and a 60% once-it-was-a-rum-but-no-longer called Portorico, which is widely used for baking (like Stroh). Unfortunately its website doesn’t mention the Casino or have a picture, but since I located a Casino bottle label with Zwack printed on [Click here for the full review…]


Badel Domaci Croatian “Rum” – Review

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Dec 222019
 
Badel Domaci Croatian "Rum" - Review

It’s been a long time since I’ve bothered to review a rum that isn’t – the Stroh comes to mind, the Czech Tuzemak, or the Mekhong from Thailand. I don’t really mind – these things are lonely, and need a home, need a review, so why not with us? It should also be noted that this product from Eastern Europe is not meant to be a drinking spirit, but one to add to teas and used in cooking, almost unknown outside the Balkans. The Domaci – the “c” is pronounced “ch” and the word means “Domestic” – is not a [Click here for the full review…]


Savanna 2012 6YO Rhum Agricole (Velier Indian Ocean Stills) – Review

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Dec 182019
 
Savanna 2012 6YO Rhum Agricole (Velier Indian Ocean Stills) - Review

Without bombast or any kind of major marketing push, without hype or hurry, Savanna on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean quietly built up its reputation over the last decade with the Grand Arôme series of rums deriving from their high ester still, and probably gave the new high-ester Jamaicans serious conniption fits. Yet for all its burgeoning street cred, it remains something of a relative unknown, while much more attention is lavished on the New Jamaicans and other companies around the Caribbean who are jacking up their taste levels.  Savanna has of course been making rums its own way [Click here for the full review…]


Key Rums of the World – Santa Teresa 1796 (Venezuela)

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Dec 152019
 
Key Rums of the World - Santa Teresa 1796 (Venezuela)

After all these years, there isn’t an average imbiber who hasn’t tried the Venezuelan Santa Teresa Ron Antiguo de Solera 1796 (to give its full and somewhat unwieldy title) at least once.  It’s a solera rum which usually sets alarm bells ringing for those who want both more disclosure and less additives, but somehow Santa Teresa has managed, through all the years, to navigate the treacherous shoals of too much or too little and remained a consistent, if not top tier, favourite of the entire tippling class. Given the rancour and fury that often attends such rums by the social [Click here for the full review…]


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