Renegade Rums

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Aug 062017
 
Renegade Rums

Renegade is – or was, in its previous incarnation – the inheritor of the rum work done by Murray McDavid, a bottler of scotch whisky established in 1996, and which acquired Bruichladdich in 2000 (Bruichladdich was itself formed in 1881, changed ownership many times until its acquisition by MM).  Renegade was formed as a separate company under this umbrella in 2006 (with a single one-pound share) and their first edition of four vintages was released the following year, with a further six in 2008 and more thereafter. Only three years of releases formed the backbone of the company’s rums (if [Click here for the full review…]


Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça – Review

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Aug 022017
 
Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça - Review

#381 Novo Fogo is the first cachaça I’ve ever tried that went off the reservation and hammered me in the face even at a relatively staid 40%.  It was so different from the regular run of sugar-water-plus-local-wood flavours to which I had become accustomed in my (as yet) brief acquaintanceship with the Brazilian national spirit, that I literally pulled my face back from the glass, muttered a disbelieving “wtf?” and spent another five minutes closely perusing the label to make sure I had not been taken for a ride.  But no, it had been an unopened bottle, it had some [Click here for the full review…]


A Short & Personal Essay About Agricole Rums

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Jul 292017
 
A Short & Personal Essay About Agricole Rums

In July 2017 the French rum wesbsite Coeur de Chauffe, as part of the Agricole 2017 world tour, issued a two part post where members of the rum and blogging community were invited to submit some brief words regarding their experiences with the French Island agricoles.  Well, most people wrote a couple of generally positive sentences, waved goodbye and moved on, but I felt that perhaps more could be said — and wrote, as is my wont, a complete essay where I tried to summarize my feelings about and experiences with this fascinating subset of the rumworld. The French language [Click here for the full review…]


Secret Treasures Gardel Distillery 1992 11 Year Old Guadeloupe Rum – Review

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Jul 262017
 
Secret Treasures Gardel Distillery 1992 11 Year Old Guadeloupe Rum - Review

#380 The independent bottler Secret Treasures is no longer the same company it started out as, and this particular and delectable Guadeloupe rum was selected by the Swiss concern Fassbind before they sold off the brand to Haromex in 2005.  So although Haromex is now making a new line of rums under the ST label (like the St Lucia Vendome and John Dore still rums I’ve looked at before), this rhum predates them and is part of the original line up.   Guadeloupe is somewhat general a term so let me expand on that by saying the rhum originates from [Click here for the full review…]


Longueteau VSOP Rhum Vieux Agricole (6 YO)- Review

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Jul 232017
 
Longueteau VSOP Rhum Vieux Agricole (6 YO)- Review

#379 Much as I had with the Longueteau Grand Réserve, a ten year old agricole from Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe), I felt the 42% strength on the six year old VSOP was perhaps too timid and too wispy for a rhum which could have been more had it been made stronger.  Longueteau, a distillery which has been in operation since 1895 and produces the Karukera and Longueteau lines of rhums, seems to eschew fierce and powerful expressions and is quite content to keep on issuing standard strength work, but since their quality is nothing to sneeze at and is readily approachable by [Click here for the full review…]


Key Rums of the World: Appleton 12 Year Old Rum

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Jul 192017
 
Key Rums of the World: Appleton 12 Year Old Rum

#378 No matter how many other estates or companies make and market Jamaican rum, it’s a fair bet that when it comes to recognition, Appleton has cornered the market in their own land, much like DDL has in Guyana, or how FourSquare is currently dominating Barbados.  Recently I ran a few Appletons past each other (it’s one of the few decent rums one can get in the rum wasteland that is Toronto), and while the 21 year old, Master Blender’s Legacy and 30 year old are not on sale there, the rebranded “Rare Blend” 12 year old was. Re-tasting the [Click here for the full review…]


Bristol Spirits 1974 30 Year Old Jamaica Rum – Review

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Jul 162017
 
Bristol Spirits 1974 30 Year Old Jamaica Rum - Review

#377 Bottled in 2004 at a lukewarm 43%, Bristol Spirits have somehow transcended the living room strength of this classic 30 year old rum and produced one of the best Jamaicans of its kind.  Even under some time pressure, I still had that glass on the go for two full hours, smelling it over and over, tasting it in the tiniest of sips again and again, comparing, retasting, rechecking, making more and more notes, and in the fullproof company of Guyanese and Jamaicans I was trying alongside it, it was a standout of no mean proportions.  We simply do not [Click here for the full review…]


Savanna Lontan Grand Arôme Vieux 2004 12 Year Old – Review

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Jun 282017
 
Savanna Lontan Grand Arôme Vieux 2004 12 Year Old - Review

#376 With the advent of the Hampden and Worthy Park rums which pride themselves on high ester counts, it seems that one of the emerging trends in the rumworld may well be such tasty, clear, bags-of-fruit rums with not just a single sapling populating the salad bowl, but an entire damned orchard. Yet on the other side of the world, Savanna has been doing this for some years now with their “Intense” and “Grand Arôme” lines, of which the reigning porn queen might well be the HERR 10 year old that so impressed me.  That rum was startling and original, [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Port Mourant 1975 32 Year Old Full Proof Demerara Rum – Review

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Jun 262017
 
Velier Port Mourant 1975 32 Year Old Full Proof Demerara Rum - Review

#375 Velier rums have now become so famous that new editions and collaborations disappear from the shelves fifteen minutes before they go on sale, and the “classic” editions from the Age of the Demeraras are all but impossible to find at all.  Still, keeping one’s twitchy ears and long nose alert does in fact get you somewhere in the end, which is why, after a long drought of the company’s rums in my battered notebook (if you discount the legendary Caputo 1973), I managed to pick up this little gem and am pleased to report that it conforms to all [Click here for the full review…]


Secret Treasures St. Lucia 2005 9 Year Old (John Dore Pot Still) Rum – Review

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Jun 222017
 
Secret Treasures St. Lucia 2005 9 Year Old (John Dore Pot Still) Rum - Review

#374 Two bottles of  Secret Treasures St. Lucian rum came my way in early 2017, entirely unexpected and unannounced, and both were fascinating variations on a theme.  Did I say thanks to Eddie K?  I think so, but let’s just tip the trilby to the man one more time, because even next to its very sound brother, this baby from a John Dore pot still is no slouch either, and not much has been written about either one, and it’s entirely possible that they are among the most under-the-radar value-for-money indie rums around. Since there’s not much more to say [Click here for the full review…]


Opinion: Why Negative Reviews Matter

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Jun 202017
 
Opinion: Why Negative Reviews Matter

Two comments I came across in my reading last week stuck in my mind and dovetailed into conversations I’ve had with others over many years.  The first was from a reviewing website which stated (paraphrased) that they don’t review what they have nothing good to say about.  The other, from a high-end watch-review site called Hodinkee, quoted a journalism professor as saying “If you’re going to write about something bad, it needs to be bad in an important way. Just being bad isn’t enough.” Which got me thinking.  Why write negative reviews at all?  They’re often depressing experiences, however easily [Click here for the full review…]


Secret Treasures St. Lucia 2005 9 Year Old (Vendome Pot Still) Rum – Review

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Jun 192017
 
Secret Treasures St. Lucia 2005 9 Year Old (Vendome Pot Still) Rum - Review

#373 In recent years, St Lucia and its eponymous distillery has been inching towards its own understated cult status: pot still rums, no additives, a finish-variation here or there, good barrel strategy, all round good stuff, and somehow (don’t ask me why) still lacks the cachet of the big four (Trini Caronis, Guyana’s DDL, Bajan FourSquare and, of course, dem Jamaicans).  Many of my rum chums swear by their rums, however, whether made by independents or issued on the island, and I can tell you, they deserve the plaudits, because they’re good. Assuming you’ve already gone through various batches of [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum des Plantations St. James 1932

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Jun 182017
 
Rhum des Plantations St. James 1932

Rumaniacs Review #050 | 0450 St. James has taken its place as the source of the most ancient rhum I’ve tried in my life (the 1885), and to this day they continue to make some very good agricoles.  But you’ll forgive me for yearning for their old, out-of-production rhums, made in times that predate my own grandfather; and I like trying them not just because they’re so old and so appeal to the collector in me, but because I find it fascinating how different they are to what’s made nowadays with the appurtenances of modern technology and skill.  Such dinosaurs [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes Guadeloupe 1998 18 Year Old Rum (Denmark) – Review

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Jun 142017
 
Compagnie des Indes Guadeloupe 1998 18 Year Old Rum (Denmark) - Review

#372 It’s always a pleasure to circle back to the now-established independent bottlers, especially those with which one has more than a glancing familiarity; they are the outfits who have carved themselves a niche in the rumiverse which for us consumers is composed of one part recognition, one part curiosity and eight parts cool rum.  The Compagnie des Indes is one of these for me, and while everyone is now aware they have started to issue the cask strength series of rums alongside lesser proofed ones (much like L’Esprit does), there will always remain a soft and envious green spot [Click here for the full review…]


Berry Bros. & Rudd 1977 36 Year Old Jamaica Rum “Overproof”

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Jun 132017
 
Berry Bros. & Rudd 1977 36 Year Old Jamaica Rum "Overproof"

Rumaniacs Review #049 | 0449 Even now, years after I acquired one of the 220 bottles of this phenomenal 36 year old rum, it retains its power to amaze and, yes, even awe. It still retails in the UK for over six hundred quid, reviews are rare as sugar in a Velier rum, and to this day it is unclear whether it is a blend — or if not, from which estate or distillery it hails.  Whatever the case, it is a great bit of Jamaican rum history and should be tried by any who get the opportunity. Colour – [Click here for the full review…]


Borgoe 15 Year Old Single Barrel Blended Rum – Review

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Jun 112017
 
Borgoe 15 Year Old Single Barrel Blended Rum - Review

#371 While SAB, the only real commercial rum producer in Suriname, makes competent blends and some very nice aged work (like the 8 year old from last week), it suffers, if the word can be used, from the following: a competitor to up the ante and push them harder within their own country; higher proof offerings as part of a connoisseur’s cabinet; a range of true single cask rums that highlights a particular point of interest in an overall oevre; and most of all, as I noted way back in the Extra Gold, that particular note of terroire that would [Click here for the full review…]


Borgoe Grand Reserve 8 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jun 082017
 
Borgoe Grand Reserve 8 Year Old Rum - Review

  #370 SAB is a Surinamese conglomerate that is very much like Banks DIH and DDL in Guyana – they have several different kinds of businesses in the portfolio, including various spirits, mostly sold on the local market.  Rums are among the few of its offerings which are exported, primarily to Holland, which comes as no surprise given their historical affiliation with the Netherlands.  At the time when I bought these bottles I was unaware of their availablity in Europe (which says rather more about my miserable googling skills than their advertising) and bought the entire line straight out of [Click here for the full review…]


Borgoe Vintage 5 Year Old Surinamese Rum – Review

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Jun 052017
 
Borgoe Vintage 5 Year Old Surinamese Rum - Review

#369 Agricoles and pot still rums aside, one does not usually expect too much from a three year old blended rum such as is the Borgoe Extra Gold we looked at earlier– although they retain their capacity to surprise — and so I had higher hopes for the five, since such lightly aged rums are often the solid pillars upon which many rum makers support the edifice of all their older (and sometimes even younger) rums.  When well made, they may even edge into sipping territory, serve as the first firm introduction to the ethos of the company and can [Click here for the full review…]


Gordon & MacPhail Long Pond 1941 Jamaican Rum

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Jun 032017
 
Gordon & MacPhail Long Pond 1941 Jamaican Rum

Rumaniacs Review #048 | 0448 For this writer, the Long Pond 1941 remains, after maybe ten separate tastings (including a Rumaniacs sample), three purchased bottles and numerous sharings, one the most spectacular Jamaican rums ever made and not simply because of the titanic age — 58 years old (beat that if you can, Appleton).  It takes the passage of years, and many other Jamaican rums to be tried alongside, for the rum to snap properly into focus and be seen for its true quality.  And unlike the earlier Velier rums which sometimes sell for €4000-5000 a bottle, if they can even [Click here for the full review…]


Borgoe Extra: Aged Suriname Golden Rum – Review

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Jun 012017
 
Borgoe Extra: Aged Suriname Golden Rum - Review

#368 There is no shortage of agricoles, independent bottlers and flavour-of-the-month rums in my notebooks — but in late 2016, and again in early 2017, I tried the Borgoe line from Suriname – all 40% rums – back to front, front to back and side by side, twice, and it’s time to see what they’re all about.  After all, we all know of the big guns in the rum world but the lesser-known operators deserve their moment in the sun as well. So let’s start at the bottom and work our way up to the top, young to old, beginning [Click here for the full review…]


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