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…]


A.H. Riise Royal Danish Navy Rum – Review

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Dec 102015
 
A.H. Riise Royal Danish Navy Rum - Review

My mission, should I chose to accept it, is to get hammered on this crap. I drank it so you don’t have to. I can’t imagine what was going through AH Riise’s corporate minds when they made this ersatz faux-Navy-Rum wannabe, but I should point out that the few rum guys I know from Denmark think it’s something of an insult to the spirit.  It’s a sweet sugary Nicolas Sparks-level saccharine mess, with a grudging nod given to navy standards by beefing it up some.  Unless you’re masochistically into multiple insulin shots, my advice is to smell it and immediately [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Albion 1986 25 Year Old Rum

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Dec 062015
 
Velier Albion 1986 25 Year Old Rum

Rumaniacs Review 013 | 0413 Another old bad boy from la Casa Luca, as we continue our sojourn down memory lane with old Veliers. The Albion 1994 17 year old was the first Velier I ever tried and there’s still a soft spot in my heart for it.  This one, tried three years later, is perhaps not as good. It’s certainly older, being bottled in 1986 and it’s a weighty, meaty 25 year old…from one barrel.  Good luck finding more of this thing. Perhaps only the Albion 1983 is rarer. Note that its actual provenance from Albion is subject to debate since [Click here for the full review…]


Chantal Comte Rhum Vieux Agricole 1980 – Review

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Dec 022015
 
Chantal Comte Rhum Vieux Agricole 1980 - Review

This rhum is a quietly dazzling masterpiece. The Chantal Comte 1980 purrs away in the glass, containing so many quietly thrumming riches, revealed in so gradual a fashion, that it embarrasses ordinary rums.  And yet, its characteristics aren’t gaudily thrown before us to entertain or impress.  There are no marketing tricks here, no fancy “finished in…” or “made this unusual way…”. No dosing, adding or off-the-wall ageing. It is only after I tried it for the fourth time that I truly appreciated the full reach of its accomplishment, and realized how well and how subtly it had been made. And [Click here for the full review…]


Lost Spirits Navy Style Rum – Review

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Nov 252015
 
Lost Spirits Navy Style Rum - Review

Leave aside the hype and controversy, and try this without preconceptions. You may be surprised, intrigued and even pleased with the result.  I was, I was and I wasn’t, not entirely…but you might be. If by now you are not aware that Lost Spirits out of California has developed a “molecular reactor” that supposedly mimics the ageing of a twenty year rum in six days, then you have not been paying attention (or aren’t that deep into rum geekdom).  The idea is not itself altogether new, and detractors have sniffed that snake oil sellers have been talking forever about using [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Port Mourant 1974 33 Year Old Rum

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Nov 242015
 
Velier Port Mourant 1974 33 Year Old Rum

Rumaniacs Review 012 | 0412 The Velier retrospectives continue.  So sad they’re out of production, and that DDL aren’t letting Luca take any more barrels from their old stocks.  The dinosaurs like this one continue to be collector’s items…the good Lord only knows where the 1972 is at these days. I last looked at this lovely rum back in 2013, when I was able to get a bottle into Calgary (bought in 2012, don’t get me started on the headaches that took), and its rep has only grown since then. Colour – mahogany Strength 54.5% Nose – Just lovely, so very distinctive. The [Click here for the full review…]


Clairin Vaval Unaged White Rhum – Review

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Nov 162015
 
Clairin Vaval Unaged White Rhum - Review

Looks like water but goes down like a charge of cheerfully boosted C4. You won’t mistake it for any other rhum…except maybe its cousins. (#241 / 84.5/100) *** Full of get-up-and-go instilled by the momentous encounter that was the Sajous, I sprang for both the Casimir and the Vaval (plus a Sajous of my own) at the first available opportunity.  Because come on, originality and going off the reservation in the rum world are vanishing ideals, and it’s not often that a rhum is so amazingly, shockingly off-base that it’s in another ballpark altogether. Such a rhum was the Clairin [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Cacique Antiguo – Review

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Nov 122015
 
Ron Cacique Antiguo - Review

Supposedly more premium, but not a whole lot better than the 500. Here’s a poster child of why a rum reviewer has to have the beady-eyed practicality of a jaded streetwalker. Age, style, marketing, pamphlets, labels, word of mouth, all count for nothing, and all is evaluated without recourse to what anyone else says. After reviewing the €35 Cacique 500 as well as the Veroes Añejo from Venezuela, and checking around to see what else I could buy from that country, I felt it was only fair to pick up something a little higher up on the value chain (but [Click here for the full review…]


Velier UF30E 1985 27 Year Old Rum

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Nov 082015
 
Velier UF30E 1985 27 Year Old Rum

Rumaniacs Review 011 | 0411 Time to address the brontosaurii of Velier for a few Rumaniacs write ups, since the samples are there. UF30E is a bit “young” for inclusion into the Rumaniacs pantheon, but it is out of production, so let’s have it. The code stands for Uitvlugt Field #30 East, or some such, which would puzzle even someone from Mudland (like, umm…well, me).  Never mind.  With an outturn of 814 bottles from three barrels, it remains one of the best rums from Velier I’ve ever sampled.  And while I thought had overpraised it back in 2013, it turns out I [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes Indonesia 10 Year Old Rum – Review

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Nov 052015
 
Compagnie des Indes Indonesia 10 Year Old Rum - Review

In Berlin in 2015, I tasted thirty or so rums at the RumFest. But I only bought one. This one. Why did I get this rum? Well, occasionally I get bored with rums that seem to go noplace special, don’t venture beyond their own self prescribed limits. I like originality, the whiff of something new. And so I go far afield and back in time, sniffing out old rums — a 30+ year old Demerara, maybe), different ones (clairins anyone?) and those from varied locations like, oh, Madagascar. I’m still looking for Swaziland; was enthralled to know that Ocean’s picked up [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum des Plantations St. James 1885

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Oct 282015
 
Rhum des Plantations St. James 1885

Rumanicas Review 010 | 0410 Yes, you read that right. 1885.  Holy molasses this thing is old. How can anyone even begin to assess a spirit that was made so incredibly long ago? I’m literally in awe. What was going on back then anyway? Sino French war in Vietnam; the Mahdist army overran Khartoum and killed General Gordon; AT&T was incorporated in New York; Gottlieb Daimler patented his engine; the North West rebellion in Canada; the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York harbour; the Third Anglo-Burmese war…and St. James began bottling its vintages that year, same year as they introduced [Click here for the full review…]


St. Nicholas Abbey 15 Year Old Rum – Review

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Oct 262015
 
St. Nicholas Abbey 15 Year Old Rum - Review

An expensive, luxurious, silky, almost-heavy, near-masterpiece of assembly. This dethrones the $400 Panamonte XXV as maybe the best 40% rum I’ve ever tried. For half the price. It’s been just over four years since I reviewed the St. Nicholas Abbey’s 8, 10 and 12 year olds, and I liked them all, a lot. They were soft, warm, well-made Bajan rums (initial distillate provided by R. L. Seale of Four Square), redolent of much history and heritage — the plantation itself is as much of interest as the rum they make. Ever since then I’ve been trying to get my hands [Click here for the full review…]


Black Tot: Last Consignment Naval Rum – Review

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Oct 222015
 
Black Tot: Last Consignment Naval Rum - Review

Bottled history.  Nothing more, nothing less. “The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good,” remarked Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I remembered that bit of wisdom before embarking on our tryst with this rum.  And to ensure that my long anticipation for the Tot wasn’t bending my feeble mind (I bought the bottle 2014, and tasted it for the first time almost a full year later) I tempered my judgement by trying it three times, with the Skeldon 1973 32 year old, BBR 1977 36 year old, a Velier Caroni and the Samaroli Barbados 1986.  Just to be sure I wasn’t [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum J. Bally 6 Ans

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Oct 192015
 
Rhum J. Bally 6 Ans

Rumanicas Review 009 | 0409 Oh, tough one to research.  Loads of 1929 and 1930s photos out there, rien on this one. Not a millesime, because J. Bally helpfully places the year on that little smiley label at the top for those.  But with that fading old-style label, maybe pre-1980s?  Earlier? Not sure.  Still, J. Bally’s original domicile on Plantation Lajus du Carbet was closed back in 1989 (current rhums are made at a consolidated site at Plantation Simon using the original recipe), so at least we have something suitably aged here.  Whatever.  It was a neat little piece of [Click here for the full review…]


The Three Amigos – El Dorado’s Single Barrel Rums

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Oct 182015
 
The Three Amigos - El Dorado's Single Barrel Rums

(#236) The three single barrel expressions issued by DDL are a curious bunch.  Ignoring the head of steam gathered by independent bottlers in the last ten years or so, DDL has never given either prominence or real attention to what could be Demerara rum’s killer app – single barrel, cask strength expressions that are still-specific.  When one observes the raves Velier, Cadenhead, RN, Silver Seal and others have gotten for their tightly focussed expressions hewing to precisely those coordinates, one can only wonder what DDL’s malfunction is. And yet, here they are, these three, originating from the Port Mourant wooden [Click here for the full review…]


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