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

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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

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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

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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

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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…]


Dzama Rhum Vieux Millésimé 1998 10 Year Old – Review

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Nov 262014
 
Dzama Rhum Vieux Millésimé 1998 10 Year Old - Review

A remarkably well balanced and tasty rum from the Indian Ocean In spite of the prevailing belief that rums are Caribbean almost by definition, it’s axiomatic that many other nations and regions produce them.  Over the years I’ve found that the most readily identifiable and distinctive (I don’t say “best”) products, products that have a flavour profile all their own, usually hail from some distant part of the world where climatic and soil conditions are far removed from the norm: consider, for example the Bundaberg, the Old Port, or even the Tanduay.  Now sure, flavourings are sometimes added to the [Click here for the full review…]


Oceans Rum Atlantic Limited Edition 1997 – Review

 1 Response »
Nov 202014
 
Oceans Rum Atlantic Limited Edition 1997 - Review

  A rum potentially seventeen years old, undone by trying to be all things to all drinkers. Ocean’s Rum Atlantic Limited Edition 1997 is made (or at least aged) in the Canary Islands, not the first place you’d think about when considering a rum of any kind.  Probably thinking that less was not more, and more might be good enough, the makers came up with this rather startling combo of components hailing from seven (yes, seven) different rum-making locations, and trotted out the 43% result as the “Atlantic” Limited Edition (the meaning of the 1997 is unclear).  I imagine that [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Nation

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Nov 122014
 
Rum Nation

Anybody who has read my work will know something of my admiration for Rum Nation, a company that came to my attention back in 2011 and which I’ve followed ever since. As Yesu Persaud springs to mind when thinking of DDL, or Luca Gargano is indelibly associated with Velier, Fabio Rossi, the CEO of Rossi & Rossi, is the man whose name is synonymous with Rum Nation. The Venetian family of Rossi has been in the business of spirits and general trading for a long time, even though Rum Nation has only been in existence since 1999. Its sister company [Click here for the full review…]


Bacardi Reserva Limitada (Founder’s Blend) Rum – Review

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Nov 062014
 
Bacardi Reserva Limitada (Founder's Blend) Rum - Review

Don’t bash the bat until you’ve given this rum a fair shot.  Because it’s damned good. Many – myself among them – believe that one of Bacardi’s more unappreciated rums is the 8-year-old, and I’d argue the Reserva Limitada joins the club…and even dials it up a few notches. The company may sell more rum than anyone else, has enormous (and heavily criticized) tax breaks and subsidies to keep its costs down, is a global juggernaut of the entry-level rums, but at the upper end of the scale has a real bad rep with rum lovers who just disdain it. [Click here for the full review…]


Bristol Spirits Caroni 1974 34 Year Old Rum – Review

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Oct 292014
 
Bristol Spirits Caroni 1974 34 Year Old Rum - Review

This is the first review in a set of about six which deals with Caroni rums.  I’m unabashedly starting with the oldest, which is a top-notch rum with few disappointments and flashes of greatness underpinning a rock solid performance.  Even before heading to Europe in October 2014, I resolved to sample what I could from the now-defunct Caroni distillery in Trinidad which regrettably closed in 2004.  Part of this is simply curiosity, mixed with a collector’s avarice…but also the high opinion I formed years ago when I tried the A.D. Rattray 1997 edition, and was an instant convert.  Alas, in [Click here for the full review…]


Spirits of Old Man Special Cask Rum No.3 – Guyana 16 Year Old Rum – Review

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Oct 242014
 
Spirits of Old Man Special Cask Rum No.3 - Guyana 16 Year Old Rum - Review

    You’ll want to coat your tongue with fire suppressant material before drinking, because once you start, the Uitvlugt 16 year old grows fangs and attacks your face like a junked-out xenomorph. Curiosity.  That’s what got me here: simple curiosity.  I’ve never tried anything by Old Man Spirits, but man, I thought, how can you even begin to argue with that cool distillery, and the strapping libido of 62.9%, which is powerful enough to make Cadenhead and A.D.Rattray take a respectful step backwards and cross their knees. And I loved the Spartan, zen-like simplicity of the bottle, which resembled [Click here for the full review…]


Velier

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Oct 202014
 
Velier

It’s no surprise that I start the “Makers” section of this website with Velier.  Perhaps no other company since Rum Nation has so captured my attention the way this one has, and with both it’s about their focus. The scotch makers like G&M, Cadenhead, A.D. Rattray and Bruichladdich also produce year-specific, limited editions of rums, but their product lines are somewhat diluted by not concentrating solely on rums but on the whiskies which are their primary products (at least in my opinion).  Velier in contrast has made its name primarily by doing something quite different  – they issue all of [Click here for the full review…]


Velier Uitvlugt 1997 17 Year Old Full Proof Rum – Review

 3 Responses »
Oct 162014
 
Velier Uitvlugt 1997 17 Year Old Full Proof Rum - Review

An exceedingly well-made, clean, relatively light rum with remarkable depth of flavour and beautiful mouthfeel. Velier, as its barrels mature in Guyana, issues annual releases when they feel they are ready, much as Rum Nation and other craft rum makers do.  This presents a particular and peculiar problem to rummies, because there is no consistency to any of them: in other words, while a DDL El Dorado 21 Year Old will be more or less the same no matter when you buy it, a Velier PM 2013 release will not be the same as a Velier PM 2014 release, even [Click here for the full review…]


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