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…]


Compagnie des Indes

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Jan 262016
 
Compagnie des Indes

*** For a company in existence for such a short time, it’s quite impressive what a wide range of rums Compagnie des Indes (which translates as the East India Company, hereinafter referred to as CDI) has managed to put out the door. As of the 2015 release season, fourteen separate countries are represented (2 from east of Greenwich). Unlike the trend in the USA and Canada, where creating one’s own new distillery and brand is more common, in Europe it’s always been more about being an independent bottler (or re-bottler, I suppose). Such enterprises don’t want to reinvent the wheel [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes 2004 South Pacific (Fiji) 10 Year Old – Review

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Jan 252016
 
Compagnie des Indes 2004 South Pacific (Fiji) 10 Year Old - Review

A well assembled rum made by someone who knows his business, yet, as with the BBR I tried some years ago, not entirely to my taste. Florent Beuchet, the man behind the independent bottler Compagnie des Indes, really likes to go off the beaten track in his search for proper casks of rum to release: either that or he has access to some broker or other with some cool geographically dispersed stocks. Think about the rums he has in his young portfolio so far – from Guyana, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Panama, Jamaica, Trinidad, Belize and Barbados, all the old stalwarts. [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Rhum Vieux Guadeloupe 1995 “Basseterre” – Review

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Jan 212016
 
Velier Rhum Vieux Guadeloupe 1995 "Basseterre" - Review

Slow, not entirely promising beginning, with a strong development and finish. In between its major releases from Trinidad, Guyana and Damoiseau where it made its bones, Velier occasionally took time off to travel the more traditional route of the indie bottler, and issue one-offs like this one (and the 1997). I consider it a curious addition to the oevre, and not entirely a rum so good that it rates admittance to the pantheon, though nevertheless deserving of praise. I call it “curious”: it was distilled in October 1995 and bottled in January 2008…but in between those dates, it was, like [Click here for the full review…]


Opinion – The Flawed Intro of DDL’s “Rare Collection”

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Jan 202016
 
Opinion - The Flawed Intro of DDL's "Rare Collection"

“I hope for them that the rums are good,” muttered Cyril darkly, as a bunch of us exchanged comments on the newest DDL offerings. We should have been happy, but we weren’t, not really. Few of us rum watchers were. Back in December 2015, I read the tea leaves spectacularly wrong and suggested that DDL would not be issuing single-still Velier-style full proofs any time soon. A month later they did: an Enmore 1993, Versailles 2002 and PM 1999. I’m actually kinda surprised nobody ragged my tail about my utter inability to forecast what might even have been a foregone [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Caroni 1985 Heavy 21 YO Rum

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Jan 192016
 
Velier Caroni 1985 Heavy 21 YO Rum

Rumaniacs Review 016 | 0416 Two more Veliers to go before we move onto other old rums, this is the “younger” one, bottled in 2006, from that Port Ellen of the rumworld, Caroni. Here in 2004, legend has it, Luca was (as usual) talking rum, chewing sugar cane and taking pictures, when he literally tripped over (not into) a warehouse of stored casks, probably forgotten, all of which he eventually bought. Talk about a coup de maître – they should make a film about him: Indiana Gargano and the Lost Warehouse, know what I mean? No one in the rumworld, [Click here for the full review…]


Trois Rivières 1986 Rhum Vieux Agricole – Review

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Jan 172016
 
Trois Rivières 1986 Rhum Vieux Agricole - Review

Like a kilt, this ten year old rhum proves that less can often be more. The Japanese art of ikebana is that of flower arranging, and if you think its principles lack applicability to rum, well, give that some thought. Sorting a big bunch of flowers into a vase is not what it’s really about (one could say the same thing about the chanoyu). The true art is about selecting just a few elements, and finding the perfect way to arrange them so that they rest together in harmony. Trois Rivières is unlikely to have studied the matter…but this rum [Click here for the full review…]


Chantal Comte Rhum Vieux Agricole 1977 20 Year Old Rhum – Review

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Jan 092016
 
Chantal Comte Rhum Vieux Agricole 1977 20 Year Old Rhum - Review

Another lovely Martinique agricole from Chantal Comte, lacking something in its construction to be truly great. Before I venture into fresh waters, the next few weeks will be about housekeeping – writing about rums to which I have referred elsewhere and which are now getting some attention of their own. Unsurprisingly, the first one is the older-but-not-quite-so-stellar brother to what may have been the best rum I tried in 2015 (the 1980 Chantal Comte), also from Trois Rivieres on Martinique, somewhat older (twenty years, versus seven), but with less power (45% ABV), more outturn…and less of a price tag. Note [Click here for the full review…]


Clairin Casimir Unaged White Rhum (2013) – Review

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Jan 072016
 
Clairin Casimir Unaged White Rhum (2013) - Review

This rum is like Hooters: delightfully tacky, enjoyable as hell, and unrefined to a fault. And once you’ve given it a shot, it’s like you have a sneaking suspicion you’ll soon be back, grumbling all the while “Poukisa rum nan toujou fini?” The Clairin “Casimir” white rum, the third of the Haitian Clairins, is maddening and strange if you are not in tune with it, mesmerizing if you are. I noted in a comment on the Vaval that it’s tough to love, and the same applies here, only more so. If you have not thrown the thing away in disgust [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Blairmont 1982 29 Year Old Rum

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Jan 042016
 
Velier Blairmont 1982 29 Year Old Rum

Rumaniacs Review 015 | 0415 Happy New Year, everyone. 2016 is upon us, I assume everyone is all sobered up, and today we continue our examination of older Veliers…the 1982 Blairmont in this case. I’ve looked at the 1991 edition before and I thought it was exceptional at the time, but that one was half as old as this lovingly aged monster supposedly taken off the French Savalle still in Guyana (the box may be a misprint unless it was referring to a now destroyed pot still). Both are excellent, though. For those who are interested, Blairmont is a sugar estate on [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Damoiseau 1980 18 Year Old Rhum – Review

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Dec 272015
 
Velier Damoiseau 1980 18 Year Old Rhum - Review

  A marriage of the best of agricoles with the best of molasses-based rums. We close off 2015 with the spectacular 2002 rum that opened the Age of Velier. Velier is better known for the pioneering full-proof Caroni and Demerara rums which have garnered it so much acclaim in the past decade; and more recently they have raised their profile even more with the issue of the Clairins, a close association with Richard Seale, and the “Gargano classification.” Yet rum aficionados who track this company know that the true beginnings of its rise are contained within the first issue they ever [Click here for the full review…]


Trois Rivières 1975 Rhum Vieux Agricole – Review

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Dec 222015
 
Trois Rivières 1975 Rhum Vieux Agricole - Review

Proof that year of make does not confer exceptionalism. Trois Rivieres in Martinique is over 350 years old, formed in 1660 when Nicolas Fouquet, Superintendent of Finances to Louis XIV, won a large concession of about 5,000 acres in the south of the island, where it remains still, after many changes in ownership. In 1953, the Marraud Grottes family, owners of their own distillery and the Duquesne brand, bought the estate and sold aged Trois Rivières Duquesne rhums under the brand until 1972. In 1994 the Trois Rivières distillery was acquired by the company BBS, which also had the La [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum Sant’ Andrea 1939

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Dec 202015
 
Rhum Sant' Andrea 1939

Rumaniacs Review 014 | 0414 The idea was to continue along with Velier’s Caroni 1985 and 1982 this week, but then I figured it was close to Christmas, so let’s go with something a little older. Perhaps a rhum from an age before ours, or even that of our fathers. Issued by the house of Fratelli Branca, which is akin to Rum Nation, Samaroli or even Velier: an old 19th century Milanese spirits maker (they created a liqueur of their own in 1845 which led to the formation of the company) and distributor, that rode the wave of “Fantasy Rhums” which were popular [Click here for the full review…]


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

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Dec 162015
 
Berry Bros. & Rudd 1977 Jamaica Rum "Overproof" 36 Year Old Rum - Review

BBR have made a rum that has all the fidelity and quality of the rums from times gone by, without compromise….a 60% velociraptor that really does get you and chomp you down. It’s Christmas, so let’s get another one of the pricier, rarer bottlings out of the way just in case someone sees it and wants one for his grandfather. In all honestly, with just 220 bottles of the Jamaica 1977 in circulation, and at the price point it retails for, one could be forgiven for wondering why I am reviewing a rum that very few people will ever try [Click here for the full review…]


Opinion – The Wasted Potential of DDL’s Single Barrel Rums

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Dec 152015
 
Opinion - The Wasted Potential of DDL's Single Barrel Rums

Introduction In 2015 it became widely known that DDL was severing its relationship with Velier, and Luca Gargano would no longer have access to their warehouses. With that simple statement, the Age of Velier’s Demerara Rums appeared to have come to an end. In October of that same year, I reviewed the three single barrel expressions DDL issued back in 2007, and the notes in that write up were so voluminous that I split them apart to form the basis of this essay. My thinking went like this: when you think of all the advantages DDL enjoys in the international [Click here for the full review…]


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