Moon Imports 1974-2004 30 YO Demerara Rum (Sherry Wood) – Review

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Apr 032019
 
Moon Imports 1974-2004 30 YO Demerara Rum (Sherry Wood) - Review

It’s entirely possible that in 2004 when this rum was released, just before the movement towards accuracy in labelling got a push start, that a label was hardly considered to be prime real estate worthy of mention. That might be why on this Moon Imports rum from 1974, Port Mourant is spelled without a “U”, the date of bottling and ultimate age of the rum is not mentioned and it’s noted as a “rum agricol – pot still.” Hang on, what….? So the search for more info begins. Now, if you’re looking on Moon Imports’ own website to find out [Click here for the full review…]


La Souris à Moustache Alban 1986 28 Year Old Full Proof Old Demerara Rum – Report

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Apr 012019
 
La Souris à Moustache Alban 1986 28 Year Old Full Proof Old Demerara Rum - Report

  In late 2018, a relative of this writer was the lead taster of a focus group assembled to test-taste a rum from an Italian company which sought to re-vitalize and even supplant the Velier Demeraras by issuing a rum of their own.  Your indolent-but-intrepid reporter has managed to obtain a copy of the official report of Ruminsky Van Drunkenberg, who is, as is widely known (and reported in last year’s authoritative biography of the Heisenberg Distillery) a man with pure 51 year old pot still hooch in his bloodstream, and whose wildly inconsistent analytical powers (depending on his level [Click here for the full review…]


Domaine de Séverin Rhum Agricole Blanc (1990s)

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Mar 262019
 
Domaine de Séverin Rhum Agricole Blanc (1990s)

Rumaniacs Review # 095 | 0611 As noted in the biography of the Domaine de Séverin, what we’re getting now from the new owners is not what we were getting before.  The company’s distillery changed hands in 2014 and such rums as were made back in the day immediately became “old”, and more obsolete with very passing year.  From the old style design of the labels, I’d hazard that this one came from the 1990s, or at the very latest, the early 2000s, and I have no background on ageing or lack thereof – I would imagine that if it [Click here for the full review…]


Domaine de Séverin

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Mar 252019
 
Domaine de Séverin

Quick, name five Guadeloupe rum brands.  Yeah, not that easy, is it? You could probably reel off Longueteau, Damoiseau, Bielle, Bellevue, Capovilla, Labatt, Reimonenq, Karukera, and then with some head scratching remember Gardel and Courcelles (which is closed).  And then there’s this little guy in the mid-north of the left “wing” of the butterfly-shaped island called La Domaine de Séverin. If you have not heard of it before, that’s little surprise, as it is possibly among the least known French Island distilleries around (Bologne, Monte Bello, Simmonet and Mon Repos are others, and there are a plethora of small ops [Click here for the full review…]


Domaine de Séverin Rhum Vieux (1990s)

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Mar 212019
 
Domaine de Séverin Rhum Vieux (1990s)

Rumaniacs Review # 094 | 0610 Séverin is a small distillery in the north of the left “wing” of Guadeloupe (called Basseterre), whose history can be divided into three parts: 1800-1928 when different owners held the small estate and grew various agricultural crops like pineapples and sugar, 1928-2014 when the Marsolle family held it and created the marque of Domaine de Séverin for their rhums, and the post-2014 period when the distillery (but not the whole estate) was sold to a local businessman called Jose Pirbakas. Although there was a cessation of operations after the takeover due to differences in [Click here for the full review…]


Isautier “Louis & Charles Isautier” Cuvée 70 Old Rum – Review

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Mar 192019
 
Isautier "Louis & Charles Isautier" Cuvée 70 Old Rum - Review

Whether or not you can place Reunion on a map, you’ve surely heard of at least one of its three distilleries: Savanna, and that high-ester still of theirs that’s driving rum geeks into transports of ecstasy.  Yet for almost the same time, there have been two other distilleries on the island, Riviere du Mat (which made the delicious Millesime 2004 and XO rums) and the oldest of the three, another family owned outfit called Isautier, which I wrote about in a brief bio a few days back Isautier, among all their punches and arranges, make an interesting selection of aged [Click here for the full review…]


Isautier (Réunion)

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Mar 172019
 
Isautier (Réunion)

Réunion is an island to the east of Madagascar, and has had a long history with European colonizers, which resulted in a bewildering plethora of names. The Portuguese who were the first on the scene named it Santa Apolónia in the very early 1500s; then a century later the French took over in the 1630s, calling it Île Bourbon in 1649 after the French royal House of Bourbon. Colonisation started in 1665, when the French East India Company sent the first settlers, after which the island was retitled “Île de la Réunion” in 1793 with the fall of the House [Click here for the full review…]


Brugal Ron Dominicano Blanco – Review

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Mar 132019
 
Brugal Ron Dominicano Blanco - Review

By today’s standards, Brugal, home of the very good 1888 Gran Reserva, made something of a fail in the genus of white rums with this Blanco.  That’s as much a function of its tremblingly weak-kneed proof point (37.5%, teetering on the edge of not being a rum at all) as its filtration which makes it bland to the point of vanilla white (oh, wait….). Contrast it with the stern, uncompromising blanc beefcakes of the French islands and independents which blow the roof off in comparison: they excite amazed and disbelieving curses — this promotes indifferent yawns. To some extent remarks [Click here for the full review…]


Appleton Special Jamaican Rum (2016)

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Mar 122019
 
Appleton Special Jamaican Rum (2016)

Rumanics Review #93 | 0607 The Appleton Special is not yet a true Rumaniacs rum, since it’s still commonly available – it was, for quite a long time, one of the most common low-end starter rums available in North America and Europe, so it’s more than likely that one can still find a bottle. However, in 2016 it was retired from active service and put out to pasture, to be replaced by the not-quite-as good J. Wray Jamaica Gold rum – I think they tweaked the blend somewhat since the taste is almost, but not quite, similar.  So, since it [Click here for the full review…]


J. Wray Jamaica Gold Rum – Review

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Mar 102019
 
J. Wray Jamaica Gold Rum - Review

In the previous review of the Florida Caribbean Distillers industrially-produced Florida Reserve 2 year old rum, it was treated and written about with some disdain, because as far as I was concerned, it had nothing to make it stand out at all.  It was a low rent mass-produced column-still rum that did exactly nothing to distinguish itself and could at best be used to spike a drink with alcohol, without leaving any trace of itself behind, not even a grin. Move on now to another minimally aged rum marketed to the masses, cheaply priced, easily available (at least, in Toronto, [Click here for the full review…]


Florida Old Reserve Rum – Review

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Mar 062019
 
Florida Old Reserve Rum - Review

So here we have a rum I’ve never heard of before, made by an outfit called Florida Caribbean Distillers (FCD) in (where else?) Florida. For those with better memories than mine, if the company name sounds familiar, it should be – this is the same one that is contracted to make the Noxx & Dunn 2-4-5 Florida rum I wrote about a few months ago. FCD is located halfway between Orlando and Tampa: they control the Club Caribe Distillery in Puerto Rico, as well as distilleries in Lake Alfred and Auburndale (both in Florida – the latter distillery produces this [Click here for the full review…]


A.D. Rattray Monymusk 1986 25 Year Old Jamaican Rum – Review

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Mar 032019
 
A.D. Rattray Monymusk 1986 25 Year Old Jamaican Rum - Review

Rumaniacs Review # 092 | 0604 Of all the independents and rebottlers I’ve tried over the last ten years, A.D. Rattray holds a special place in my affections, largely because it was one of the first of the kind I managed to sample back when I was getting started (Rum Nation, Cadenhead and Renegade were others).  Then, after trying their 1997 Caroni, 2003 Barbados and 2000 Panama rums, I didn’t find too many others and gradually they fell off my scope. A.D.Rattray was a company established in 1868 by Andrew Dewar and William Rattray, and was originally an importer of [Click here for the full review…]


Albrecht Rum LPS Long Pond 1993 17 Year Old Jamaican Rum – Review

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Feb 282019
 
Albrecht Rum LPS Long Pond 1993 17 Year Old Jamaican Rum - Review

Until Velier came along last year and produced that incredible Long Pond Quartet, you would have been hard pressed to get much from that distillery, which sent most of its stock overseas to age and be issued by others.  Much of their production was placed into blends, and occasionally a small single cask release would be spotted on the market – the Juuls Ping 9, BBR 1977, Compagnie’s 2003 12 YO, Rum Nation’s 1986 Supreme Lord VI, the snarling 81.3% bronto of SMWS R5.1, and, of course, greatest of them all, the near legendary G&M 1941 58 year old. Now, [Click here for the full review…]


HSE Rhum Agricole Extra Vieux 2005 10 Year Old Rhum – Review

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Feb 252019
 
HSE Rhum Agricole Extra Vieux 2005 10 Year Old Rhum - Review

Just to reiterate some brief details about HSE (Habitation Saint-Étienne), which is located almost dead centre in the middle of Martinique.  Although in existence since the early 1800s, its modern history properly began when it was purchased in 1882 by Amédée Aubéry, who combined the sugar factory with a small distillery, and set up a rail line to transport cane more efficiently (even though oxen and people that pulled the railcars, not locomotives). In 1909, the property came into the possession of the Simonnet family who kept it until its decline at the end of the 1980s. The estate was [Click here for the full review…]


Don Q Gran Añejo Puerto Rican Rum – Review

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Feb 242019
 
Don Q Gran Añejo Puerto Rican Rum - Review

It’s a peculiarity of the sheer volume of rums that cross my desk, my glass and my glottis, that I get to taste rums some people would give their left butt cheek for, while at the same time juice that is enormously well known, talked about, popular and been tried by many….gets missed. One of these is the Don Q series of rums out of Puerto Rico made by the Serrallés family who, like Old Facundo, hailed from Catalonia and came to Puerto Rico in around 1820.  In the 1830s they established a sugar plantation on the outskirts of Ponce [Click here for the full review…]


Destileria Limtuaco Very Old Captain Artisan Crafted Dark Rum – Review

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Feb 192019
 
Destileria Limtuaco Very Old Captain Artisan Crafted Dark Rum - Review

Just reading the label on the Very Old Captain makes me think (rather sourly) of yesteryear’s uninformed marketing copy, Captain Morgan advertisements and the supposedly-long-debunked perception that rum is fun, a pirate’s drink, redolent of yo-ho-hos and sunny tropical beaches. Even after so many years of so many companies and writers seeking to raise the bar of quality hooch, we still get assailed by such pandering to the least common denominator and what’s perhaps more discouraging, there are many who’ll buy it on that basis alone. Lest you think I’m just having a bad hair day, consider what the label [Click here for the full review…]


Takamaka Bay Rum Co. / Trois Frères Distillery – Seychelles

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Feb 162019
 
Takamaka Bay Rum Co. / Trois Frères Distillery - Seychelles

The only rum I’ve ever tried from the Seychelles was one that was discontinued, the Takamaka Bay Overproof white, but the depth of research I did on that short article was not inconsiderable, and it formed the basis of this short biography.  That doesn’t mean that I’ve tried much of their rum, but fortunately that’s not a prerequisite for inclusion in the Makers series of essays. Given how much press the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Reunion gets these days, what with New Grove, St Aubin, Savanna, Isautier and Rivière du Mat distilleries putting cool rums out the door, [Click here for the full review…]


Excellence Rhum Diamond MPM 2005 11 YO Guyana Rum – Review

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Feb 142019
 
Excellence Rhum Diamond MPM 2005 11 YO Guyana Rum - Review

Few profiles in the rum world are as distinctive Port Mourant, deriving from DDL’s double wooden pot still in Guyana. Now, the Versailles single wooden pot still rums always struck me as bit ragged and fierce, requiring rare skill to bring to their full potential, while the Enmores are occasionally too subtle: but somehow the PM tends to find the sweet spot between them and is almost always a good dram, whether continentally or tropically aged.  I’ve consistently scored PM rums well, which may say more about me than the rum, but never mind. Here we have another independent bottling [Click here for the full review…]


Takamaka Bay Overproof White Rum (2000s)

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Feb 112019
 
Takamaka Bay Overproof White Rum (2000s)

Rumaniacs Review #091 | 0598 Overproof rums started out as killer cocktail ingredients, meant to boost anything they were put into by, I dunno, a lot. For many years they were pretty much the bruisers of the barflies — low-life, lightly-aged mixers (or occasionally unaged whites) which only islanders drank neat, largely because they had the least amount of time to waste getting hammered.  Still, as time passed and cask strength rums became more fashionable (and appreciated), the gap between the strength of a cool aged casker and an overproof shrank, to the point where a 75% bottling of a [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Royal Navy Very Old Rum – Review

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Feb 082019
 
Velier Royal Navy Very Old Rum - Review

Velier has always had this way of sneaking in something obscure among all their major series of rums — some smaller or very individual bottling that doesn’t so much fly under the radar as not excite quite the same rabid fly-off-the-shelves obsessiveness as, for example, the old Demeraras or Caronis.  So there are those Basseterres from 1995 and 1997, for example, or the Courcelles from 1972, or that 1954 RASC army rum I’m still searching for. Another may well be the Very Old Royal Navy rum released in 2017.  At the time, it got quite a lot of press (and [Click here for the full review…]


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