J. Gow “Fading Light” Pure Single Rum (Scotland) – Review

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May 072023
 
J. Gow "Fading Light" Pure Single Rum (Scotland) - Review

If I enjoyed the naming J. Gow’s growling salvo across the rum world’s bows, the “Revenge,” then as a lover of language and an avid amateur photographer, I must confess to liking and appreciating the quiet romanticism the “Fading Light” title even more. And since that wasn’t enough for VS Distillers (the company behind the brand), it was also a more distinctive, even better rum than the “Revenge”…which as you may recall from last week’s review, was no slouch itself. I won’t rehash the background of this new Scottish distillery ensconced on a tiny island in the Orkneys, so far [Click here for the full review…]


J. Gow “Revenge” 3 YO Pure Single Rum (Scotland) – Review

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May 022023
 
J. Gow "Revenge" 3 YO Pure Single Rum (Scotland) - Review

More and more we are ceasing to regard rum as being the province of just the great geographical areas which have long stratified the spirit into styles which promoted – and are limited by – the regional perceptions of old colonial empires. British (Jamaican, Barbadian, Guyanese), Spanish/Latin and French are the best known of course, and Matt Petrek has long argued (correctly, in my view) that they are best seen as production classifiers than true regional markers — but ultimately the one thing that that particular series of classification did was that it centred our minds in the western hemisphere, [Click here for the full review…]


Ironworks Distillery Amber Rum – Review

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Apr 282023
 
Ironworks Distillery Amber Rum - Review

Returning to Canada and observing the rumscape that has developed over the last decade has not filled me with elation and confidence. Most of what I’ve found and tasted thus far is low level mixing hooch – which wouldn’t be so bad if the majority wasn’t just the kind of barely-aged, insipid, uninspiring, boring blah that Merchant Shipping Co. white rum so splendidly exemplified. They didn’t have to be — after all, I’ve tasted unaged and lightly aged rums from all over the map which exceeded their humble origins and became unexpectedly and quietly impressive products. But up until last [Click here for the full review…]


Pitterson “Dry Rum” Rhum Blanc – Review

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Apr 242023
 
Pitterson "Dry Rum" Rhum Blanc - Review

It’s almost a foregone conclusion that 99% of the readers of this article won’t know a thing about this rhum and its brand, and until I started researching the bottle, I didn’t either.  That’s an increasingly rare thing these days, considering that the writings of so many stellar bloggers over the last decade, combined with Rum Ratings and Rum-X, make it almost impossible for any brand to escape notice. Yet here we are, sipping at a peculiar bottle of white rum I bought completely on a whim (mostly because I can’t resist not knowing more about it). The company that [Click here for the full review…]


Whaler’s The Original Dark Rum (Rare Reserve)(Green Label)(1970s / 1980s)

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Apr 212023
 
Whaler's The Original Dark Rum (Rare Reserve)(Green Label)(1970s / 1980s)

Rumaniacs Review R-147 | 0990  After an hours-long tasting session of old rums from the seventies and eighties that were straining to reach the pinnacle of their mediocrity (and mostly failing), there were few surprises left when I came to the another one of the Hawaiian Distillers’ rums called Whalers.  For those who are curious there is some background in the other “Original Dark” review, the Hana Bay entry, as well as that of the Spirit of Hawaii: all of these brands were made by the same company, and although Hawaiian Distillers no longer exists, the brand of Whalers does [Click here for the full review…]


Damoiseau Rhum Agricole Blanc 50% White Rhum – Review

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Apr 172023
 
Damoiseau Rhum Agricole Blanc 50% White Rhum - Review

After more than a decade of writing about rhum agricole, its not entirely surprising that I’ve written more about Martinique rhums than Guadeloupe’s or Reunion’s or Madeira’s…yet more about Damoiseau’s products than any other distillery on any of these islands.  There’s just something about the subtly sumptuous roundness of their rhums that appeals to me, which is an observation I’ve made about Guadeloupe rhums as a whole before. Martinique rhums may be more elegant, more artistic, more precisely dialled in…but Guadeloupe’s rhums are often a whole lot more fun. Therefore my statistical appreciation for Damoiseau makes it peculiar that I’ve [Click here for the full review…]


Worthy Park Rum Bar “Silver” Unaged White Rum – Review

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Apr 142023
 
Worthy Park Rum Bar "Silver" Unaged White Rum - Review

“Worthy Park”.  No more need be said, no further introduction is needed.  They are one of the New Jamaican distilleries, without which the island’s rums cannot be properly understood or appreciated. They wield pot stills with the casual ease of Thor and his hammer, put any amount of unsuspecting Bacardi drinkers under the table, and have produced rums for independent bottlers and themselves that are stunning in their quality and taste chops.  All this from a joint that only (re)opened for business in 2005 after four decades in mothballs. Once they fired up the new distillery, Worthy Park initially began [Click here for the full review…]


Plantation Barbados Grande Reserve Aged Rum – Review

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Apr 102023
 
Plantation Barbados Grande Reserve Aged Rum - Review

At first I thought the Barbados Grande Reserve Aged Rum was a replacement for the five year old Barbados rum from Plantation which I had tried many years ago, but further investigation showed them to be quite separate.  Both, however, are part of the Signature blends which include the Barbados 5, the XO, Grand Anejo and Xaymaca — these are what one might infer are entry level rums for the curious (to call them ‘premium’ would be a stretch). They are neither bartenders’ mixing staples like the Three Star, OFTD or Original Dark, nor expensive limited editions like the upscale [Click here for the full review…]


Ironworks Distillery “Bluenose” Dark Rum – Review

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Apr 032023
 
Ironworks Distillery "Bluenose" Dark Rum - Review

The first thing one notices about the rum, even before it’s poured, is the colour – dark, almost black, with reddish tints, and completely not natural. This creates both expectations and dread in the reviewer because firstly, there’s the whole question of additives, and secondly, it suggests the channelling of the Navy Rum vibe of yore, complete with cutlasses, yo ho hos and some sort of faux-Demerara vibe to deceive the unwary. This does not usually end well. It’s a relief then, that neither of these is obviously or obnoxiously the case, and in fact, the rum presents rather well [Click here for the full review…]


Ian Macleod No. 34 “Diamond of Frederiksberg” Demerara Rum (2003)

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Mar 302023
 
Ian Macleod No. 34 "Diamond of Frederiksberg" Demerara Rum (2003)

Rumaniacs Review #146 | R-0985 This is one of those rare instances where the subject is not some dusty old find from Ago with dust flaking from its shoulders, but a relatively recent bottling; and rather more than less is known about the rum, because in this instance, not only did I have the bottle in my grubby little paws, but happily it was also sporting a quite informative label. Oh, and it was a great Guyanese rum to boot.  Those who bought one are surely happy they did so, or should be. This was an independent bottling done for [Click here for the full review…]


Co-Op Spirits Caribbean White Rum (Minhas Distillery) – Review

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Mar 272023
 
Co-Op Spirits Caribbean White Rum (Minhas Distillery) - Review

What we are trying today is the Co-Op Caribbean White Rum, which at around C$30 or less is comfortably within the reach of anyone’s purse if perhaps not their purpose. The rum is supplied to the Co-Op supermarket chain by a very interesting Calgary-based company called Minhas Distillery, which until recently didn’t have a distillery in the city, just a brewery, and whatever spirits they produced came from a distillery down in Wisconsin…which is all less than helpful in tracing the product since rum is really not in their portfolio. What Co-op sells is a white rum in a sleek [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes Fiji 2010 (Secret Distillery) 10 Year Old – Review

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Mar 232023
 
Compagnie des Indes Fiji 2010 (Secret Distillery) 10 Year Old - Review

Compagnie des Indes, run by the flamboyant and cheerful Florent Beuchet, was one of the first independent bottlers whose rums I found and started reviewing, along with Rum Nation and the original Renegade and yes, Velier. The small company is still going strong, and after having made its bones with some really good single cask bottlings — I have fond memories of their Indonesian rum, for example — did some very unusual one-offs (Florida, Thailand, Ghana, El Salvador), and also expanded into blends, much as 1423 has done, with names as evocative as Tricorn, Blacklice, Boulet de Canon, Veneragua, Barbagaya, [Click here for the full review…]


Dzama Rum Cuvée Blanche (Madgascar) – Review

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Mar 202023
 
Dzama Rum Cuvée Blanche (Madgascar) - Review

Madagascar’s best known distillery’s rums have been the subject of three reviews in these pages, stretching from 2014 to 2021, yet even now it is unclear whether this has made anyone sit up and pay attention. For the most part the rum drinkers’ attention remained resolutely with the Caribbean nations, or the new ones emerging elsewhere – suggesting that while Madagascar was unusual, it was apparently not enough to make it a global seller. With or without such widespread recognition, Dzama still exists, however, still releases rums (a lot – Rum-X lists 29 of them), and can still be found [Click here for the full review…]


Whaler’s The Original Dark Rum (Rare Reserve)(Red Label)(1970s / 1980s)

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Mar 162023
 
Whaler's The Original Dark Rum (Rare Reserve)(Red Label)(1970s / 1980s)

Rumaniacs Review No.145 | 0981 Whaler’s as a rum brand is still being made after more than half a century, and apparently undeterred by its complete lack of anything resembling real quality, has not only kept the Original Dark Rum recipe – the vanilla-bomb that I reviewed way back in 2010 – but actually expanded the supermarket line of their rums to include a vanilla rum, a white rum, a “topping rum” (whatever that is) and other flavoured variations that comfortably cater to the bottom shelf and are almost guaranteed to make another generation of Americans swear off rum forever. [Click here for the full review…]


Bacardi Gran Reserva “Diez” 10 YO Rum – Review

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Mar 132023
 
Bacardi Gran Reserva "Diez" 10 YO Rum - Review

The Bacardi “Diez” – or, to give the rum its full title, the Bacardi Gran Reserva ”Diez” 10 Year Old Extra Rare Gold Rum – is the top of the trio of the company’s mid-level “kind-of” premium range.  Below it are the old workhorses of the añejo, gold, blanco, black, superior and so on; in its playpen also reside the Cuatro and Ocho (and maybe the Reserva Limitada); and above it are the more exclusively minted bottles of the Facundo line – the Paraiso, Neo, Eximo and Exquisito (I am deliberately excluding the relatively new single barrel editions and the [Click here for the full review…]


Merchant Shipping Co. White Rum (Highwood Distillers) – Review

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Mar 102023
 
Merchant Shipping Co. White Rum (Highwood Distillers) - Review

The last two reviews were of products from a Scottish rum maker called Sugar House, who bootstrapped a hybrid pot still, a batsh*t crazy production ethos and somehow came out with two unaged rums that should not have succeeded as well as they did…but did; and blew my socks off. This is what happens when a producer, no matter how small or how new, takes their rum seriously, really loves the subject, and isn’t averse to tinkering around a bit, dispenses with the training wheels, and simply blasts off. Juice like this is the high point of the reviewing game, [Click here for the full review…]


Sugar House Unaged White Overproof Rum – Review

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Mar 062023
 
Sugar House Unaged White Overproof Rum - Review

As soon as the review for the Sugar House unaged white went up, a flurry of comments resulted: “It’s not too shabby” admitted one FB denizen, “But I prefer the OP.” This was immediately seconded by another who said “Love the OP” and followed it up with a flaming icon; and right on the heels of those two remarks, another chipped in over at the NZ Rum Club, and said that yep, the OP was the sh*t there too. I completely get that, because I have a thing for really strong rums. It’s a mixed bag, as any reader of [Click here for the full review…]


Sugar House Scottish Pure Single Unaged White Rum – Review

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Mar 032023
 
Sugar House Scottish Pure Single Unaged White Rum - Review

Sugar House, along with Ninefold, J. Gow, Islay Rum Co and other distilleries now opening in the UK, may represent the Brit’s answer to the diminution of the merchant bottling trade, or perhaps the growing expense of getting the best casks out of the brokerages by an ever-increasing number of independents. It speaks to the desire of a new crop of aggressive young Turks to not be beholden to third parties for barrels of rum or blending skills, but to let loose and harness their own creative impulses to the max, and go out there and break some sh*t, to [Click here for the full review…]


Original Hana Bay Premium Rum (USA, 1980s)

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Feb 272023
 
Original Hana Bay Premium Rum (USA, 1980s)

Rumaniacs Review No. 144 | 0976 In 2023, if you were to google “who makes Hana Bay rum?” you’d get a response that Hali’imaile Distilling Company is the distillery of origin; except if you went to their site, there would be no mention of Hana Bay at all (or Whaler’s and Mahina, the other brands they own and supposedly make). Digging further and you’d see that Hawaiian Distillers out of Honolulu made Hana Bay rum from around the 1980s forwards and in the early 2010s when I first looked at Whaler’s, it was being made in Kentucky by the brand [Click here for the full review…]


L’Esprit Diamond 2017 “Still Strength” White Rum (1º Ed.) – Review

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Feb 242023
 
L’Esprit Diamond 2017 “Still Strength” White Rum (1º Ed.) – Review

When it comes to Guyanese rum, I’m afraid that much as I enjoy DDL’s wares from time to time – more so of late, since they took the bull by the horns and released rums with less additions –  the really good stuff, the best stuff, to me, still comes from the indies.  Alas, Velier has moved away from the Demerara rums and I can’t afford the ones that remain on the secondary market, but fortunately for us all, there is no shortage of other independent bottlers out there to satisfy our thirst for the output of those lovely wooden [Click here for the full review…]


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