St. Nicholas Abbey White Rum – Review

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Apr 132016
 
St. Nicholas Abbey White Rum - Review

A tasty, unaged, pot-still white rum, which St. Nicholas Abbey seems to have made while in a playfully experimental phase. So there I was last week, reading through my notes and writing unenthusiastically about the 3 year old “Real McCoy” white rum from Barbados, which found little favour with me.  But consider this unaged counterpart made right up the road from St. Nicholas Abbey, also issued at 40%, also a white and in just about every way a superior product.  What could account for such a difference? Well, part of it is the lack of filtration, another is the source [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum Barbancourt Réserve Spéciale (1970s)

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Apr 102016
 
Rhum Barbancourt Réserve Spéciale (1970s)

Rumaniacs Review 021 | 0421 Here’s a pretty decent, if somewhat anorexic, rhum from Haiti, courtesy of the House of Barbancourt.  The name “Réserve Spéciale” is still in use, and refers these days to an eight year old, but so scarce is any kind of information on the sample I was provided (even getting a photo was problematic hence the lousy quality of the one you see here), that for me to say it was an eight year old back then is an educated guess, not a fact.  Still, info or no info, a sample was sent, and there it is and [Click here for the full review…]


The Real McCoy 3 Year Old White Rum – Review

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Apr 092016
 
The Real McCoy 3 Year Old White Rum - Review

Bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts will get more out of this than I ever will. It redefines the word “understated.” Knowing how I have never been entirely satisfied with rums from Barbados, I decided to buy a few about which many have waxed rhapsodic, followed that up with trying as many as I could at the 2015 Berlin rumfest, and continued on the theme by begging my friends in Europe for samples of their personal stocks of independent bottlers’ Bajans.  Let’s see if I can’t get to the bottom of why — with just a few exceptions — they don’t titillate [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum Rhum Libération 2012 Vieux Agricole “Integrale” – Review

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Mar 302016
 
Rhum Rhum Libération 2012 Vieux Agricole “Integrale” - Review

One of the best five year old rhums ever made, and a showcase for the wonderful directions the profile of a rhum can take. If I was underwhelmed by the “standard” 45% 2012 Liberation, and shrugged at the 2010 version (both rated around low eighties scores), let me assure you that the 2012 “Integrale”, bottled at a mouth watering 59.8%, is a beast of an entirely different colour. If your sojourn into agricoles ever takes you to Guadeloupe rhums, you could do a lot worse than stop a while at the small southern island of Marie Galante, where Bielle and [Click here for the full review…]


Neisson Rhum Agricole Vieux Tatanka “Le Coupeur” – Review

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Mar 242016
 
Neisson Rhum Agricole Vieux Tatanka "Le Coupeur" - Review

A youngish agricole with slightly loopy tastes that makes one intrigued enough to take another sip….and another two or three after that. Cheap tinfoil cap aside, this may truly be one of the most original and striking bottle labels I’ve ever seen.  Painted right on, colourful, bright, lovely, and if I was still scoring such things, it would be tempting to add an extra point or two just to show how much it appeals.  The bottle shape was the same as the Extra Vieux I wrote about some months back, but man, the design was as jazzed up as the [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Nation Demerara 1990 25 Year Old Rum – Review

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Mar 222016
 
Rum Nation Demerara 1990 25 Year Old Rum - Review

* The yin to Velier’s yang approaches its own pit stop on the road to the end of the Age of Demeraras, with a worthy entry to the genre. Because I have a thing for Demerara rums (and not just because I used to live in the neighborhood), I’m always interested in finding new ones…or old ones issued anew, take your pick.  The RN 1990 is a sad sort of milestone for the company, because it is one of the last of the deeply aged Demeraras the company will issue for some time, nearly depleting its stock of PM distillate [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Nation Peruano 8 Year Old Rum – Review

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Mar 162016
 
Rum Nation Peruano 8 Year Old Rum - Review

More tamed Peruvian sunshine. It’s been quite a few months since I picked up a Rum Nation product to write about.  This is not to say that they have either lapsed in sleep or are resting on the laurels of past achievements, since just the other day they put out some promo materials for two new Guadeloupe rums I’m going to keep an eye out for.  However, today I wanted to look at one of their other countries’ offerings, the Peruano 8 year old. Aficionados are no strangers to rums from that country: both the Millonario XO and Millonario 15 soleras [Click here for the full review…]


Appleton Estate “Extra” Jamaican Rum (1980s)

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Mar 152016
 
Appleton Estate "Extra" Jamaican Rum (1980s)

*** Rumaniacs Review 020 | 0420 The tinfoil cap and chubby, callypigian bottle (trust me, that’s a word worth knowing), give this away as a rum made within living memory, even if some of us weren’t drinking back then (or drinking much). The “Extra” evolved into the modern 12 year old…alas I didn’t have any on hand at the time I tried this ‘Maniacs sample so I couldn’t do a comparison, though some of my friends think it’s as good or better. It ain’ no quattie, I could tell you that. Colour – dark amber (darker than the current 12 year [Click here for the full review…]


Cadenhead Green Label Demerara Rum 1975 33 Year Old – Review

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Mar 132016
 
Cadenhead Green Label Demerara Rum 1975 33 Year Old - Review

It’s instructive to drink the Norse Cask and the Cadenhead in tandem.  The two are so similar except in one key respect, that depending on where one’s preferences lie, either one could be a favourite Demerara for life. The online commentary on last week’s Norse Cask 1975 32 year old rum showed that there was and remains enormous interest for very old Guyanese rums, with some enthusiasts avidly collecting similar vintages and comparing them for super-detailed analyses on the tiniest variations (or so the story-teller in me supposes).  For the benefit of those laser-focused ladies and gentlemen, therefore, consider this [Click here for the full review…]


Norse Cask Collection Demerara 1975 32 Year Old Rum – Review

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Mar 082016
 
Norse Cask Collection Demerara 1975 32 Year Old Rum - Review

Sometimes amazing rums come into being, made by people you’ve never heard of, blindsiding you with creative genius. Here’s one from Denmark. Often, writing about a rum that is good with flashes of great leaves me with the vague feeling of dissatisfaction, because it seems that with a little more effort and imagination and maybe even chutzpah, it could have scored higher, been more, wowed my socks off.  How often have I written “excellent work, but…”?  The Danish made Norsk Cask, which I bought together with Henrik of Rumcorner, was a rum that neatly sidestepped those concerns and has proved [Click here for the full review…]


E.H. Keeling & Son Old Demera Rum (1950s)

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Mar 032016
 
E.H. Keeling & Son Old Demera Rum (1950s)

Rumaniacs Review 019 | 0419 So this is a rum from British Guiana in pre-Independence days, distilled for E.H. Keeling & Son in London.  These days such rums are not strictly unicorns, because that would suppose we know something about them – here, their makers have long since been forgotten, the bottles drained, the labels faded, and they were not made for a discerning audience.  Yet the rums still turn up here and there like old-fashioned, tarnished gems in your late Grandmother’s Edwardian jewellry box, whose story and origin have been lost because no-one ever thought to remember.  Sad really. Perhaps here we [Click here for the full review…]


Samaroli Barbados 1986 (WIRR) 20 Year Old Rum – Review

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Mar 012016
 
Samaroli Barbados 1986 (WIRR) 20 Year Old Rum - Review

A Barbadian rum you’re unlikely to either forget, or get much more of, in the years to come.  It’s among the most original rums from Barbados I’ve ever tried, even if it doesn’t quite come up to snuff taken as a whole. I wish I could find more Samarolis from the early days. There aren’t enough from that maker in the world, and like most craft bottlers, their wares go up in price with every passing year.  I was lucky enough to buy this remarkable Bajan rum online, and for a twenty year old rum from one of the non-standard [Click here for the full review…]


Samaroli Demerara 1994 12 Year Old Dark Rum – Review

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Feb 262016
 
Samaroli Demerara 1994 12 Year Old Dark Rum - Review

A very well blended, original melange of traditional Demerara flavours that comes up to the bar without effort, but doesn’t jump over. It is a curious matter that although Samaroli may well be the first independent bottler to dabble in the issuing of year-specific, country-specific craft rums (they began with whiskies back in 1968), somehow they never seem to quite get the respect or street cred that its inheritors like Velier, RN, CDI and others do.  Few of their rums grace the review pages of the blogosphere, and yet, those that show up have all gotten pretty positive words said [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum St. Gilles (1960s/1970s)

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Feb 152016
 
Rhum St. Gilles (1960s/1970s)

Rumaniacs Review 018 | 0418 This is a tough rhum to track down, so there’s not much I can tell you aside from noting that the brand no longer exists…I don’t even know when they went belly up.  If my searches are any good, an ex-Carmelite priest called Reverend St. Gilles opened the small plantation in the 17th century (the company itself published a book about him in 1948). In their time prior to the 1980s, La Compagnie du Rhum Saint Gilles exported several varieties of rhum from Martinique to France and Italy, for distributors like Stock and Raphael.  My sample was neither [Click here for the full review…]


Nine Leaves Angel’s Half (American Oak) Spring 2015 Release

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Feb 132016
 
Nine Leaves Angel's Half (American Oak) Spring 2015 Release

Little Lord Fauntleroy in a bottle. Back in 2014 I first encountered rums from the Japanese company Nine Leaves, and was impressed enough to not only write about the company in one of my Makers profiles, but resolved to not let Mr. Takeuchi’s work escape me a second year in a row.  So said, so done…I’ve tried four more of the company’s rums, and begin working through the resultant reviews with the American Oak version, bottled in Spring 2015. As an aside, Mr. Takeuchi has certainly managed to elevate his company’s profile in 2014-2015.  Presenting in Rome, Berlin, UK and [Click here for the full review…]


Neisson Rhum Agricole Extra Vieux – Review

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Feb 102016
 
Neisson Rhum Agricole Extra Vieux - Review

A fascinating introduction into the twists and turns an agricole rhum profile can take To the extent that agricoles have their own flavour profile, they haven’t surprised me much yet.  My tastes were formed by products from Clemente, Rum Nation, Damoiseau, Depaz, J. Bally, Trois Rivieres and others, and there were always those herbal and grassy notes to them and displayed similar general characteristics. That was until I ran through four Neissons one after the other…and was forced to conclude that agricoles can be just as fascinating and unusual as any other sugar cane drink.  Seriously – Neisson may make [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Cask Fiji 2003 10 Year Old Rum – Review

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Feb 072016
 
Rum Cask Fiji 2003 10 Year Old Rum - Review

Rum Cask makes a slightly better Fijian rum, of the four I’ve tried. Rum Cask is another one of the smaller independent bottlers – out of western Germany in this instance, very close to the French border –  who do the usual craft bottling thing. They act as both distributors of whisky and rum, and at some point they fell to dabbling in their own marques, issuing cask strength rums from Belize, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Cuba Grenada, and more, including Fiji, which may be something of an afterthought. In what is probably a coincidence, they issued a ten year old rum [Click here for the full review…]


Duncan Taylor Fiji 2003 10 Year Old Rum – Review

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Feb 042016
 
Duncan Taylor Fiji 2003 10 Year Old Rum - Review

Nope, all apologies to the islanders, but Fiji still doesn’t ascend to the heights of a country whose rums we must have. Yet. Let’s just dispense with two more Fijian products that crossed my path, provided by my friend Cornelius of Barrelproof, who, it should be noted upfront, liked them both a lot more than I did. We don’t see many products from that country anywhere – “Eastern” rums don’t make it west of the iron curtain very often, so it’s mostly in online emporia that we find find rums from Fiji, Australia, Indonesia or even Japan; these are sold [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1982 Heavy 24 YO Rum

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Feb 012016
 
Velier Caroni 1982 Heavy 24 YO Rum

Rumaniacs Review 017 | 0417 We’re down to the last sample of the old Velier rums I’ve got, this one from Caroni, and like the 1985, also bottled in 2006, though two years older. My background notes say 4600 bottles issued from 15 barrels and handsomely issued at 58.3%.  What else can I tell you about Caroni you don’t already know? Probably nothing, so let’s move on. Colour – Dark amber Strength – 58.3% Nose – The 1985 was great, and this one raises the bar a smidgen. With these old, bold rums, sometimes the oak takes charge too aggressively…not [Click here for the full review…]


A Conversation with Luca: Velier, DDL and the Rare Collection

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Jan 272016
 
A Conversation with Luca: Velier, DDL and the Rare Collection

Luca sounds tired.  The boss of Velier has just returned from Cape Verde off the coast of Senegal, where he was investigating small rum producers like in Haiti, has been caught up in the online discussions of the “Rare” issues, gave an interview to DuRhum (in French), and is now on his way to Morocco to attend some business and help shoot a documentary, before heading off to Cape Verde again.  I catch him in the back of a taxi, but he’s willing to talk a little.  Truthfully, when it comes to rums, the man is always ready to talk, [Click here for the full review…]


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