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…]


Ron Carlos Caribbean Style Rum “Light Dry” – Review

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Dec 112019
 
Ron Carlos Caribbean Style Rum "Light Dry" - Review

Last time ‘round we looked at the Ron Carlos Caribbean Style Rum “Black”, which I dismissed with a snort of derision – it was too simple, too weak, and had nothing of any substance to really recommend it, unless all you were looking for is a jolt of something alcoholic in your coffee (and were curious about who Carlos was).  It’s not often I find a product about which I can find almost nothing good to say except that “It’s a rum.” Here’s one made by the same company as the Black, in the same aggressive we-aim-for-the-low bar vein, and [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Carlos Caribbean Style Rum “Black” – Review

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Dec 082019
 
Ron Carlos Caribbean Style Rum "Black" - Review

If you want to know why American supermarket rums (sometimes called “value rums” which is two lies at once) get such short shrift from so many rum folks, one like this is enough to explain the general indifference. It’s milquetoast, vague, with not a single point of interest, and that’s including the equally lackluster promotion that surrounds it. Let’s start at the beginning.  What is it, who makes it, where’s it from? We must begin with the label, which unfortunately just makes me want to cringe.  No really.  For starters, it’s noted as a “Caribbean Style rum”. That’s about as [Click here for the full review…]


Mainbrace Rum (Late 1980s)

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Dec 012019
 
Mainbrace Rum (Late 1980s)

Rumaniacs Review #106 | 0681 Mainbrace Rum is a Guyanese and Barbados blend released by Grants Wine and Spirits Merchants of London, one of many small emporia whose names are now forgotten, who indulged themselves by selling rums they had imported or bought from brokers, and blended themselves. It is unknown which still’s rums from Guyana were used, or which estate provided the rum from Barbados, though the balance of probability favours WIRR (my opinion). Ageing is completely unknown – either of the rum itself, or its constituents. The Mainbrace name still exists in 2019, and the concept of joining [Click here for the full review…]


Mía White Rhum Agricole (Vietnam)(2018) – Review

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Nov 282019
 
Mía White Rhum Agricole (Vietnam)(2018) - Review

It must be something about the French – they’re opening micro distilleries all over the place (Chalong Bay, Sampan, Whisper, Issan and Toucan are examples) and almost all of them are channelling the agricole ethos of the French West Indies, working with pure cane juice and bringing some seriously interesting unaged blancs to the attention of the world. Any time I get bored with the regular parade of rums from the lands of the pantheon, all I have to do is reach for one of them to get jazzed up about rum, all over again. í The latest of these [Click here for the full review…]


L’Esprit South Pacific Distillery “Still Strength” White Rum (3º Ed.) – Review

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Nov 252019
 
L'Esprit South Pacific Distillery "Still Strength" White Rum (3º Ed.) - Review

So here we have a white rum distilled in 2017 in Fiji’s South Pacific Distillery (home of the Bounty brand) and boy, is it some kind of amazing. It comes as a pair with the 85% Diamond I looked at before, and like its sibling is also from a pot still, and also spent a year resting in a stainless steel vat before Tristan Prodhomme of the French indie L’Esprit bottled the twins in 2018 (this one gave 258 bottles). Still-strength, he calls them, in an effort to distinguish the massive oomph of the two blancs from those wussy cask-strength [Click here for the full review…]


Clément Trés Vieux Rhum Agricole 1952

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Nov 212019
 
Clément Trés Vieux Rhum Agricole 1952

Rumaniacs Review #105 | 0678 1952 – an eventful year.  Queen Elizabeth II ascends to the throne; Black Saturday in Egypt, followed by the overthrow of King Farouk; the US election puts Ike in the White House; the first steps towards the EU were taken with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community; television debuts in Canada; Charlie Chaplin is barred from re-entry to the US; “Mousetrap” opens in London (and never closes) – and in Martinique, Clément distills this rum and starts ageing it. So here we are.  We’ve arrived at the oldest rum that is within [Click here for the full review…]


Clément Trés Vieux Rhum Agricole 1970

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Nov 192019
 
Clément Trés Vieux Rhum Agricole 1970

Rumaniacs Review #104 | 0677 Unsurprisingly, the 1976 Clément Trés Vieux we looked at a few days ago sells for around €500 or more these days, which to me is a complete steal, because any Velier from that far back is going for multiple thousands, easy.  This, the second-oldest component of the XO sells for quite a bit more – north of €700 (though you can find it for much less in any store that is out of stock, and that’s most of them). And I think that one is also remarkably undervalued, especially since it’s a really good rhum.  [Click here for the full review…]


Clément Trés Vieux Rhum Agricole 1976 20 YO

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Nov 172019
 
Clément Trés Vieux Rhum Agricole 1976 20 YO

Rumaniacs Review #103 | 0676 The Clément XO was one of the first top end agricoles I ever tried, one of the first I ever wrote about, and one that over the years I kept coming back to try. It evoked memories and recollections of my youth in Guyana which alone might justify its purchase price (to me, at any rate). There’s something undefinable about it, a trace of its heritage perhaps, the blend of the three rums that made it up, millesimes from what were deemed exceptional years – 1976, 1970 and 1952.  The Clément 1976 is the first [Click here for the full review…]


Cihuatán “Nikté” Ron de El Salvador Limited Edition – Review

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Nov 142019
 
Cihuatán "Nikté" Ron de El Salvador Limited Edition - Review

Three years ago I tried and later wrote a review of the 8-year-solera Cihuatán rum from El Salvador (bottled at 40%), and noted rather disappointedly that “this was a remarkably quiet rum.”  Essentially, I regarded it with some indifference. At the time, Paul Senft of Rum Journey and I were trading notes and he told me they had a 12 year solera variation slated to be released, and Cihuatán themselves told me they were working on some more limited editions of their own. Well, I moved on, liking but not completely won over by the brand at that point, and [Click here for the full review…]


La Belle Cabresse Rhum Blanc Agricole de la Guyane – Review

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Nov 112019
 
La Belle Cabresse Rhum Blanc Agricole de la Guyane - Review

In case you’re wondering, in the parlance of the Francophone West Indies the term “cabresse” (or “chabine”) refers to a light skinned mulatto, what Guyanese would call a dougla gyal – not altogether politically correct these days, but French Caribbean folks have always been somewhat more casual about such terms (witness the “Negrita” series of rums, for example) so perhaps for them it’s less of a big deal. The rum in question comes from French Guiana in this case, made there by the same distillery of St. Maurice which also provides the stock for the rhums of that little indie [Click here for the full review…]


Mhoba “Strand 101°” South African Rum – Review

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Nov 072019
 
Mhoba "Strand 101°" South African Rum - Review

It’s when you smell and then taste the Strand 101° (58% ABV) rum from South Africa’s Mhoba, that you begin to get an appreciation for what this relative newcomer has accomplished in so short a time. The initial punch is all pot still, all righteous reek, all the time — there’s no holding back and it’s just fascinating to inhale. It smells sharply of paint thinner, nail polish, turpentine and rancid fruit left to go bad in the sun…after a tropical rain, with the steam still coming off the ground. It contains the tartness of a lemon meringue pie mixed [Click here for the full review…]


Mhoba Select Reserve French Cask South African Rum – Review

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Nov 042019
 
Mhoba Select Reserve French Cask South African Rum - Review

There was a lot of interest in and written about Mhoba between the UK 2018 and Paris 2019 rumfests, and when one checks out the rums they make, it’s not hard to see why.  It’s from a unique part of the world, has been deep-dived by Steve James in a thee-part-post that could hardly be bettered (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 are here), has a pot still action going on, and the rums themselves are solidly distinct. So we should beware of letting them fall off our mental rum radar in between expos – because they’re good, and, [Click here for the full review…]


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