St. Aubin Isle de France Cuvée Spéciale 2005 Rhum – Review

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Jan 212018
 
St. Aubin Isle de France Cuvée Spéciale 2005 Rhum - Review

#481 The current focus on the Caribbean’s rums to some extent obscures interesting developments taking place elsewhere – for example the new Madeira rum from Rum Nation, French Guiana’s Toucan…and rums from St. Aubin in Mauritius, which are not particularly new, but certainly lack wider appreciation, perhaps because they don’t make it to the festival circuit as much as others do.  Anyway, this rum, the Isle de France 1715-2015 is part of their “History Collection”, bottled at 40% for a wider commercial market, and commemorates the year of establishment of French rule over Isle de France for the French East [Click here for the full review…]


Neisson Rhum Agricole Hors d’Âge 1993-2012 19 YO

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Jan 182018
 
Neisson Rhum Agricole Hors d’Âge 1993-2012 19 YO

Rumaniacs Review #069 | 0480 These double-digit aged agricoles are joys to behold (we’re talking carafe or flagon styles with fancy stoppers here), look awesome on the shelf (put these on a faux-silver salver on the sideboard with a couple other and you could pretend you’re a closet billionaire when pouring it into an ersatz crystal glass that was once a peanut butter jar), and best of all, they taste awesome, whether in a glencairn, a cut crystal Lalique, or in that old Canadian standby, a screw top jar.  I know the middle aged agricoles of around 6-12 years or [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes Jamaica 2003 (Long Pond) 12 YO Rum – Review

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Jan 162018
 
Compagnie des Indes Jamaica 2003 (Long Pond) 12 YO Rum - Review

#479 We’re on something of a Jamaican rum kick for a week or two, because leaving aside Barbados, they’re the ones getting all the press, what with Worthy Park and Hampden now putting out the juice, Long Pond getting back in on the act, Monymusk and New Yarmouth lurking behind the scenes, and remember JB Charley with its interesting hooch? And of course behind them all, Appleton / J. Wray remains the mastodon of the island whose market share everyone wants a bite of. While Worthy Park’s three new 2017 pot still offerings are definitely worth a buy, and Hampden [Click here for the full review…]


Neisson Rhum Agricole Hors d’Âge 1992-2012 20 YO

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Jan 132018
 
Neisson Rhum Agricole Hors d’Âge 1992-2012 20 YO

Rumaniacs Review #068 | 0478 As I’ve observed before, agricoles come into their own at a younger age than the industrielles, so a very good one can always be found in the 5-10 year old range with minimal trawling, and they’re usually sub-50% ABV, which also allows them to find a greater audience…but to find rhums ten years old and older, and from the 1990s and earlier, now that takes a little more effort.  Rest assured, the search for such agricoles is often worth it, though for a handsome decanter like this one comes in — which perhaps says something [Click here for the full review…]


Renegade 2003 Monymusk 5 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 102018
 
Renegade 2003 Monymusk 5 Year Old Rum - Review

#477 You’re going to read more about rums from the Monymusk distillery out of Jamaica in the next few years, I’m thinking, given how the island’s lesser-known products are emerging from the shadows; and distilleries other than Appleton are coming back into their own as distinct producers in their own right – Hampden, Longpond, Worthy Park, New Yarmouth, Clarendon/Monymusk are all ramping up and causing waves big time.  But aside from the Royal Jamaican Gold I tried many years ago (and was, at the time, not entirely won over by) and the EKTE 12 YO from a few weeks back, [Click here for the full review…]


Neisson Rhum Agricole Hors d’Âge 1991-1997 8 YO

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Jan 072018
 
Neisson Rhum Agricole Hors d’Âge 1991-1997 8 YO

Rumaniacs Review #067 | 0476 Neisson out of Martinique must have had a particularly good year in 1991, because there’s no shortage of rhums bearing that number, up to and including the Armada Millesime and the 1991-2001 edition, both of which are rarer than hen’s teeth and fetch four figure prices.  Matters are confused somewhat by the various editions being of similar strength (45.3% in this case) and not always being clear (on the bottle label at least) as to which year it was bottled, leaving the specific edition and true age somewhat in doubt. This one, according to my [Click here for the full review…]


Key Rums of the World: Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva

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Jan 032018
 
Key Rums of the World: Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva

#475 “A few years ago, these rums [Zacapa and Diplo Res Ex] were seen as the baseline for all other rums to be judged.  No longer.”  Thus wrote Wes Burgin over at the Fat Rum Pirate in an excellent July 2017 post suggesting that with social media and education, enthusiasts were becoming more knowledgeable and less apt to accept adulterated rums than ever before. Yet in spite of that ideal, in spite of the ever-expanding knowledge-base of rums the world over, the Diplo remains enormously popular. It’s unlikely that there’s any rum drinker out there – junkie or not – [Click here for the full review…]


9 Bajan Rums

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Dec 312017
 
9 Bajan Rums

Although I always have controls on hand when writing a review, it’s not always clear in my writing how they all relate to each other, since the individual essay speaks to just a single rum.  However, I’m a firm believer in doing flights of multiple rums, whether horizontally (several rums of similar age or provenance), or vertically (where a single maker’s entire range is evaluated up and down the age or strength scale).  Such exercises are useful in that they permit similarities and differences to snap more clearly into focus, and perhaps some interesting judgements can be made on that [Click here for the full review…]


EKTE No. 2 12 Year Old Jamaican Rum – Review

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Dec 272017
 
EKTE No. 2 12 Year Old Jamaican Rum - Review

#474 Much like L’Esprit from Brittany, Ekte out of Denmark kinda flies under the radar, but both for their sense of humour (similar to the SMWS if you ask me) and their (extremely) limited edition bottlings, they should not be forgotten just yet. They came on the scene in 2015 at the UK Rumfest with a bunch of blends and limited releases, and the following year they passed through Berlin, where I tried the subject of this review, the No. 2 from Jamaica…and let me tell you, it’s no slouch on its own terms: actually, it’s quite an animal. Like [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Albion 1983-2000 17 Year Old Rum

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Dec 232017
 
Velier Albion 1983-2000 17 Year Old Rum

Rumaniacs Review #066 | 0473 The Velier Albion 1983 bottled at standard strength shares space with others of the original Velier rum lineup bottled by Breitenstein such as the Enmore 1987 and LBI 1985; it comes complete with colorful box which was discontinued some years later, and in tasting it you can see, even from so far back, the ethos of the company’s founder start to shine through…but only faintly. Five casks of origin, no notes on tropical vs continental ageing or the final outturn, sorry.  I’d suggest that these days finding one of the original Velier bottlings from nearly [Click here for the full review…]


Doorly’s 12 Year Old Barbados Rum – Review

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Dec 212017
 
Doorly's 12 Year Old Barbados Rum - Review

#472 The question that arises in my mind when I try something from Foursquare at standard strength is whether it would be better stronger, or whether it succeeds on its own merits as it stands.  Long time readers of this site (both of you, ha ha) will know of my indifference to the Doorly’s XO, the R.L. Seale’s 10 YO and the Rum 66 12 Year Old, but ever since Alex over at Master Quill glowingly endorsed the Doorly’s 12 YO (and noted he didn’t buy the XO because of my review), I’ve been curious how it would fare – especially [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1982-2005 23 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

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Dec 192017
 
Velier Caroni 1982-2005 23 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

Rumaniacs Review #065 | 0471 There are, as far as I am aware, three 1982-2005 23 year old Caronis issued by Velier. The  “Light” issued at 59.2% (R-058), the “Heavy Full Proof” which is a ripsnorting 77.3% (R-063), and now this “Heavy” one, the last of my Rumaniacs samples from Trinidad, which clocks in between those two, at 62% and a 1360-bottle outturn.   Unsurprisingly, this presents casual buyers with quite a chellenge. I know Luca felt that each iteration and individual expression of the various Caronis highlights some kind of distinct point of interest he wanted to share, but to [Click here for the full review…]


Toucan No. 4 Rum – Review

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Dec 182017
 
Toucan No. 4 Rum - Review

#470 The No. 4 made by Toucan Rums from French Guiana is a small, sweet melody of a rum, playing itself out in a minor key.  This isn’t a great rum, not truly pure, but I never got the feeling, when talking with the small company’s vivacious Directeur-General, Cat Arnold, that they really meant it to be.  The sense was more that they set out to indulge their passion, and there are parallels to Whisper Rum from Antigua here: in both cases a pair of French entrepreneurs bootstrapped a tiny operation, refused to go through brokers, and sourced rum from [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1983-2008 25 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

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Dec 152017
 
Velier Caroni 1983-2008 25 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

Rumaniacs Review #064 | 0469 When sampling yet another Caroni from the glory years of the 1980s, it’s something like opening a long-shut box redolent of the past, and maybe one can be forgiven for – in these times – rhapsodizing about the way hard honest rums were supposedly made by sweaty proles who had no patience for fancy finishes, plate manipulation or barrel strategy.  So in a way it’s ironic that Caroni was not considered a particularly good rum back then – it was not that well known, it certainly wasn’t the estate’s prime focus, its signature taste was [Click here for the full review…]


Habitation Velier “Last Ward” Barbados 2007 10 Year Old Rum – Review

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Dec 132017
 
Habitation Velier "Last Ward" Barbados 2007 10 Year Old Rum - Review

#468 Velier’s Last Ward is an elegaic and haunting rum that evokes memories of old times and old places, yet is brought smack bang up to date for the modern connoisseur and rum lover.  It is a summing up of all things Mount Gay that matter if you’re in tune with it, just a really good rum if you’re not, and is one to savour and appreciate and enjoy no matter what your state of mind or preference in rum.  One can only wonder, with all the great distilleries that are represented in the independent bottlers’ more popular and better-known [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1982-2005 23 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

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Dec 102017
 
Velier Caroni 1982-2005 23 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

Rumaniacs Review #063 | 0467 Having tried several of the ur-proofed rums of the rumiverse (Sunset Very Strong 84.5% and Marienburg 90% come to mind) I must confess that while stronger stuff exists, trying high-test like this makes me think I’ve run out of steroidal fortitude. It’s a shattering experience, not just because of its strength but because somehow it pushes all the boundaries of a very precise Caroni profile – it’s like getting hit with the spirituous equivalent of a fully boosted luxury freight train (assuming Louis Vuitton made one).  And it is to its credit that it not [Click here for the full review…]


Dictador Best of 1977 Solera Aged Rum – Review

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Dec 072017
 
Dictador Best of 1977 Solera Aged Rum - Review

#466 “Sample #18 reminds me of a Don Papa,” grumbled a Philippine friend of mine, who was blind tasting some samples I had sent over to Quezon City. “Hot distillate on the nose, very sweet.” In those few words he encapsulated something of my own unease about the Dictador rums out of Colombia, because while hydrometer tests reveal no adulteration for the 12 and 20 year soleras, and probably none for the Insolent and Perpetual (they measure 3-4 g/L which is within the margin of error), the plain fact is that they simply taste too damned sweet…a characteristic of most [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1983-2005 22 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

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Dec 052017
 
Velier Caroni 1983-2005 22 Year Old Heavy Trinidad Rum

Rumaniacs Review #062 | 0465 It’s a mind game that never gets old – how many Caroni bottles are there?  I speculated that Velier alone likely has around a million in circulation and when one sees an outturn like this – 20,986 bottles! – I think that even though the long-closed distillery’s rums are now becoming must-haves on par with the Demeraras, there’s no danger of running out of possibilities in the near future.  Though as I remarked once, when we start to see Caronis being issued from the post-2000 era, the end will be near. Be that as it [Click here for the full review…]


Key Rums of the World: El Dorado 15 Year Old Rum

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Dec 022017
 
Key Rums of the World: El Dorado 15 Year Old Rum

#464 Seen over a span of decades, it is more clear than ever that the El Dorado 15 year old is a seminal rum of our time. “It is a bridge” I wrote back in 2010 in my unscored review, remarking that it straddles the territory between the lower end twelve year old and the 21 year old, and represents a sort of intermediary in value and price and age. The best of all worlds for El Dorado, you might say, and indeed it remains, even twenty five years after its introduction in 1992, one of the most popular rums [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1982-2006 24 Year Old Light Trinidad Rum

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Nov 292017
 
Velier Caroni 1982-2006 24 Year Old Light Trinidad Rum

Rumaniacs Review #061 | 0463 So here’s a Caroni marked ‘Light’which supposedly means somewhat less esters than the one we looked at last week (the ‘Heavy’) but let me assure you that even though it’s a shade less proofed than that one (and less esters, supposedly), it in no way lacks for really deep tastes. If I had to chose I honestly think I would select this one for the buy…always assuming I could find it at all.  The 12 and 15 and 23 year old Veliers from the closed distillery are issued in the thousands of bottles, which is [Click here for the full review…]


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