How to Start Reviewing Rums – Part 1

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Mar 032015
 
How to Start Reviewing Rums - Part 1

Introduction There are a lot of people who write engagingly and have an interest in rum, and some of them, not unnaturally, want to start their own website regarding matters of the cane. Some want to review rums; others want to blog about cocktails; in other cases the new bloggers address themselves to spirits in general. After a while, hits go up, production goes up, and the site takes off. And then, in some cases, it slides into a moribund state of somnolescence. It’s because I wish we had more rummies out there that I decided to put together some [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum J.M. 1995 Très Vieux 15 Year Old – Review

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Mar 032015
 
Rhum J.M. 1995 Très Vieux 15 Year Old - Review

A unique fifteen year old agricole that lacks something of the deep dark depth of the Damoiseau 1980 I so liked, but is a great and tasty example of the style nevertheless…as long as your tastes run that way. As adolescents, among our most fervent wishes was to have coitus without interruptus the way a hobbit has breakfast: whenever possible, preferably all the time, twice daily if we could manage it (well, what teenager hasn’t?) But as the years wound on, some reality entered that little fantasy: the truth is that unlimited anything gets boring after a while. One does [Click here for the full review…]


Alt-Enderle “India” Rum – Review

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Feb 232015
 
Alt-Enderle "India" Rum - Review

An entry level rum with some unusual and remarkably pleasant flavours that one has to work too hard to find in the raw scrape of underaged alcohol. One of the things I noted when nosing this dark mahogany-red rum from the German outfit Alt-Enderle, was the baking spices that presented themselves almost immediately. At 43% strength there was no real savagery here, and I didn’t bother letting it rest before trying it (when you practice on cask-strength muscle-twitching bodybuilders, anything under 50% seems easy), and all I remarked on at the inception was how many different, mild, spiced up elements [Click here for the full review…]


Cavalier Rum Puncheon White Overproof – Review

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Feb 192015
 
Cavalier Rum Puncheon White Overproof - Review

A relatively light and sweet potent white lightning that sits square between a white agricole and full-proofed island hooch, with a charm and power all its own. The very first review ever published by The ‘Caner was written for Liquorature (the predecessor to this site) and was for the Antigua Distillers’ masterful English Harbour 25 year old 1981. In later years, I had my suspicions about it – from the similarity of profiles, I thought it was a rebranded, perhaps re-blended version of the Cavalier 1981, which was an understated and excellent rum in its own right, and the sales [Click here for the full review…]


La Favorite Cuvée Privilège 30 Year Old – Review

 2 Responses »
Feb 152015
 
La Favorite Cuvée Privilège 30 Year Old - Review

  This is a pricey and very good rum that should have had the guts to go higher than its issued strength; but you’ll still be extremely happy with what you get, because there’s a lot going on until it runs out of steam at the finish. Indulge my love of history for a while: La Favorite is a small family owned distillery in Martinique which has an annual rum production of around 600,000 litres (as comparative examples, Bacardi sells in the tens of millions and the craft maker Rum Nation somewhere less than 200,000). The original sugar plantation was initially called “La [Click here for the full review…]


Cadenhead Trinidad Rum TMAH Trinidad Distillery 1991 21 yr old – Review

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Feb 122015
 
Cadenhead Trinidad Rum TMAH Trinidad Distillery 1991 21 yr old - Review

A Spartan rum, sporting a massive codpiece, ripped eight-pack, and real attitude. Not for the lovers of softer or sweeter fare. You just gotta shake your head with appreciation when you regard Cadenhead and their commitment to muscle-bound zen machismo in rums. They’ve always had a certain retro charm and a daring to go off the reservation that I grudgingly admired, and they have continued along that path here with this monster full proof. Leaving aside the squat, glowering psycho-orange-and-yellow bottle with its cork stopper which is almost a Cadenhead signature, it should simply be noted that Cadenhead hewed to [Click here for the full review…]


The 200th Review

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Feb 052015
 
The 200th Review

  *** Who would have thought, that when Liquorature first started as a small club in 2009, that the rum reviews portion of its website would split off into its own, let alone ever surpass a hundred reviews? With the review of Rivière du Mât Rhum Vieux Traditionnel Millésime 2004, some three years after passing the 100th write-up and more than five years into it, I have reached the next milestone, the 200th, and I have to admit, it would have been faster if I had not stopped writing for a year when I moved to the Middle East. It’s [Click here for the full review…]


Rivière du Mât Rhum Vieux Traditionnel Millésime 2004 8 YO – Review

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Feb 042015
 
Rivière du Mât Rhum Vieux Traditionnel Millésime 2004 8 YO - Review

The XO is more expensive, and slightly older, yet I feel this one is better in every way that counts: I’m going to take a deep breath, go out on a limb…and say I think this is among the best rums Rivière du Mât have yet created. Full of beans and enthusiasm after the frothing delight that was the Rivière du Mât XO, I decided to dump the previous subject of my 200th review, and go immediately to the Millésime 2004, which is close to the top of their range, and one of the better rums I had in 2014. [Click here for the full review…]


Rivière du Mât Rhum Vieux XO – Review

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Feb 012015
 
Rivière du Mât Rhum Vieux XO - Review

Soft, firm, tasty and an all ‘round excellent rum. It could have been stronger, but that doesn’t invalidate the quality of what you do get. Sometimes a positive review leaves me glumpish. This is a great rum, older cousin to the also interesting Grande Réserve, well put together, subtle, classy, soft, and possessing a real good taste…yet I guarantee that my inbox will be filled with grumbling queries as to why I bother writing about rums many can’t get. In fact, the majority of people reading this will ask variations of “So?”, “From where wuz dat again?” and the final resigned snort of annoyance, [Click here for the full review…]


The RumWorld’s Movers & Shakers, Past & Present

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Jan 292015
 
The RumWorld's Movers & Shakers, Past & Present

In December 2014, Ian Burrell put a survey up on FB’s The Global Rum Club Page. It read: “If you had to pick 5 people who have been a major influence for the rum category, who would you pick ? It can be brand founder, distiller, blender, brand ambassador, bartender, promoter, blogger, marketer, etc. Vote for your pick or add your own major influence. I’ll throw 5 (pre 1950’s) into the mix (in no order) Don Facundo Bacardi Massó ; Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt AKA Don the Beachcomer; Admiral Edward Vernon aka Old Grog; Constantino Ribalaigua Vert and James Man [Click here for the full review…]


Rhum Depaz (Hors D’Age) Cuvée Prestige – Review

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Jan 242015
 
Rhum Depaz (Hors D'Age) Cuvée Prestige - Review

Clean, clear, dry and old, with a lackluster finish that detracts from the excellent front end. When I reviewed the Depaz Reserve Speciale a while back, I thought that the flavours seemed a shade sharp, too vague, and departed the scene with all the hurry of a street cur at which you threw a rock…or something to that effect. Most of these issues were absent from the Cuvée Prestige, which was a better rhum in almost every way. It is a blend of rhums aged between six and nine years, has a lovely outfit, and probably the top-of-the-line product from [Click here for the full review…]


Nine Leaves

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Jan 202015
 
Nine Leaves

  There’s a aspect of Japanese culture which appeals to me a lot – the concept of kaizen, or slow, patient, incremental improvement of a thing or a task, by constant repetition and miniscule refinement, that over time can lead to spectacular results and quality. Consider Toyota’s manufacturing processes as an example. Or the master chef Jiro Ono, who has been making sushi for decades, constantly making his work simpler, more elegant…and better, much better, Michelin-3-star better. Or the filmmaker Ozu, who always seemed to make exactly the same film, until his repeated, specific observations on Japanese life became universal [Click here for the full review…]


Depaz Rhum Vieux VSOP Agricole Reserve Speciale – Review

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Jan 122015
 
Depaz Rhum Vieux VSOP Agricole Reserve Speciale - Review

Complex, yes. Quality, not entirely. Although the Depaz VSOP Reserve Speciale is noted as being a complex agricole, not much except perhaps the taste of the reddish brown rhum deriving from the Plantation de la Montagne Pelee really works for me as it should, which just goes to show that not every single spirit hailing from a part of the world supposedly making only top-end products can be as good as it is meant to be. Part of the issue here (I hesitate to say “problem”) is that all sensations go by too fleetingly for any real impression to be [Click here for the full review…]


Karukera Rhum 2004 Vieux Double Maturation – Review

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Jan 082015
 
Karukera Rhum 2004 Vieux Double Maturation - Review

A rich, argicole rum of a depth and flavour I savoured for literally hours – it almost qualifies as the perfect comfort drink, and for sure it’s the best sub-10 year old rum I’ve tried in ages. Karukera in Guadeloupe is a distillery for whom I have grown to have a great deal of respect: I was not won over by their Vieux Reserve Speciale, but the 1997 Millesime was something else again, and I often drifted back to it when looking for an agricole baseline, or a control. On the strength of that positive experience, I decided to step [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Diamond 1999 15 Year Old Rum – Review

 7 Responses »
Jan 032015
 
Velier Diamond 1999 15 Year Old Rum - Review

Velier has created a heated, tasty, toasty Demerara rum that in my opinion takes its place alongside the UF30E and the Skeldon 1973 as one of the best rums they have ever made. More than “42”, here’s the answer some of the great and grand questions of the universe. When asked by the inquiring, “What makes anything you say worth hearing?” or “Why should I sleep with you?” or “Why’s the front door smashed in?”, all you need to do is smile, shrug, and point to this rum. Velier’s rums sometimes seem similar when described (look how many Caroni rums [Click here for the full review…]


Silver Seal Caroni 1997 14 Year Old Trinidad Rum – Review

 1 Response »
Dec 282014
 
Silver Seal Caroni 1997 14 Year Old Trinidad Rum - Review

A surprising, dry, sharp and flavourful rum, yet somewhat missing of the high bar set by the Caronis made by other Italians. It’s got too many conflicting components, good in themselves, failing to cohere. Readily available, cheaper and often excellent “everyone has one in his bar” rums dot the North American reviewing landscape, and every blogger usually begins his or her writing with such standards (European bloggers like Cyril, Marco and Henrik do not, for other reasons). Just like all film lovers eventually come to Ozu, sooner or later all us web scriveners move towards the craft bottlers, and with [Click here for the full review…]


Rivière du Mât Traditionnel Vieux Grande Réserve Rum – Review

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Dec 132014
 
Rivière du Mât Traditionnel Vieux Grande Réserve Rum - Review

A tasty, svelte, supple rum like this brings home the point of how widespread the world of rum is, how we are too often satisfied with too little, and why should demand more. Even at 40%, this rum is quite a drinking experience. Réunion? Quick, place that on a map. Casting around for something to look at to close out 2014, I settled on this sprightly and supple forty percenter. This was not just because I wanted to cast a geographically wider net (though this is also true) – but because when you see a good rum, you really want [Click here for the full review…]


Barangài Rum (Caroni) Sherrywood Cask 1997 16 Year Old – Review

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Dec 092014
 
Barangài Rum (Caroni) Sherrywood Cask 1997 16 Year Old - Review

This is the second in a series of about six Caroni rums which I bought in mid-2014. It’s a solidly impressive rum, and quite a sophisticated, tasty bruiser. Barangài? What the hell is this? I asked myself, when scouring the online shoppes to come up with another Caroni perhaps worthy of purchase. I found out that the word is not a title or the maker’s name (as I had initially surmised) but refers to an old descriptor used by the islanders for ships of medium capacity: I suppose a caravel, or a carrack, or a ballinger would be as good [Click here for the full review…]


Nine Leaves Angel’s Half (French Oak Cask)(2014) Rum – Review

 3 Responses »
Dec 052014
 
Nine Leaves Angel's Half (French Oak Cask)(2014) Rum - Review

A Japanese pot still rum of clout and flavour, perhaps needing some more ageing to score better and reach a wider audience. In five years of writing about rum, I’ve seen quite a few new rum-making enterprises come across my radar: Elements, Koloa, Downslope, Ocean’s readily spring to mind. Now they are joined by a new outfit called Nine Leaves, which may be unique in that it’s a distillery, a bottler, and a distributor, all run by one person: Mr. Yoshiharu Takeuchi, who operates in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan (the company was formed in 2013). At this point in [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Nation Jamaica Unaged Pot Still 57% White Rum – Review

 3 Responses »
Dec 012014
 
Rum Nation Jamaica Unaged Pot Still 57% White Rum - Review

  If strength and atavism are your things, the Jamaica Pot Still 57% won’t disappoint; a shot or two of this, and you’ll feel your nostrils dilate as you search around for a stone to bash a rhino with, before eating a freshly-caught, still-twitching deer. It’s that intense. The 57% pot still Jamaican rum from Rum Nation represents a departure for the company in a number of ways (not including the bottle shape, introduced for the 2014 season). It is the first rum the company has produced that is over 100 proof, it’s the first rum they’ve not aged at [Click here for the full review…]


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