Rum Reviews & Ramblings
I started in the world of wine tasting around 2006. These tastings were always blinded, so you had to work on finding and building a repertoire of a broad range of descriptors in order to piece together what you had in your glass...So when it comes to smell and flavour description, I’ve been doing it for quite a few years. In 2015, my interest in rum was sparked and since then I have thrown myself deep in to the world of this amazing spirit and wonderful people.
/Kris von Stedingk
Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 14 - Union 55 - 41% abv. This rum is a little different than the typical rum I review, but seeing as it is soon Christmas, why not go for something festive. Union 55 is another rum bottled by an independent bottler in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its base is sourced from column still Barbados rum that is a blend of primarily charred ex-american (I’m guessing ex-bourbon) barrels as well as a small amount of ex-sherry casks. They then infuse the rum w
Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 13 - The Duchess - Barbados (Foursquare Distillery) - 13 yo - 59% abv. The newest of the releases from the Netherlands-based bottler The Duchess, this time from the Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. The rum was distilled in 2005 and was tropically aged for 11 year in ex-bourbon barrels before being shipped and aged for an additional 2 years continentally. It was bottled in 2018 at cask strength of 59% abv. and yielded 294 bottles. On the nose this
This white rum is a blend from 5 distilleries: four hailing from Jamaica - Hamden, Worthy Park, Clarendon and New Yarmouth. All unaged, high-ester copper pot still rum. The fifth rum in the blend is a 2-3 year, ex-bourbon barrel, low-ester rum from Trinidad (Anogostura distillery) that has been charcoal filtered to give it the clear white shine. This rum clocks in at 317 gr/hlaa of volatiles, meaning that we’ve got a funky one on our hands! This rum is produced by an independ
Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 8 - Duchess Belize (Travellers Distillery) - 10 yo - 66.6% abv. Another independent bottling by Netherlands based The Duchess. This time they have selected a cask from the Travellers Distillery in Belize. This distillery has not been exporting rum for all that long, with their first released coming from around 2005. This specific bottling was distilled in 2007 and aged for 9 years in Belize before being shipped and re-casked continentally for an add
Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 2 - Ultimatum Rum Single Cask Selection - Fiji 12 yo - 46% abv. On the bottle it is stated that this rum is distilled at a “secret” distillery, however, there being only one operational rum distillery in Fiji, it is safe to assume that this rum has come from the South Pacific Rum Distillery. This pot still rum is bottled by Ultimatum Rum which is an independent bottler based in the Netherlands. It has been aged for 12 years in ex-bourbon barrels, an
Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 1 - The Duchess - Guadeloupe 19 yo - 54.9% abv. So it’s December 1st, which means the countdown to Christmas is on! Whether you celebrate the holiday season or not, many use these 24 days to give themselves a treat each day leading up to the big event. In recent years, rum advent calendars have become a delightful way of tasting a wide range of new products and getting to know the world of rum a little better. Personally, I have known quite a few pe
The Ultimate - Finest Rum Selection 2006 - 46% abv. This rum is a combination of a 3 year tropic aged Diamond (Guyana) together with an undisclosed aged pot still Worthy Park. Casks were shipped after aging to Amsterdam, where it was bottled in 2006. On the nose the first thing that hits me fruit. Firstly, you get whammed by sour green apple! Followed by tropical fruit; Pineapple, mango, papaya. Peaches and apricots. This slowly evolves into citrus notes, which to me are
By The Dutch - Batavia Arrack Cask Strength - 61.1% abv. (*Note: I had written 64% before, but this is what it arrived in the Netherlands at, and the Cask Strength bottling was at 61.1%) Hailing from the land of Indonesia, this product cannot technically be classified as a rum, as it has had the addition of rice during the fermentation process. However, this is still a sugar-cane-derived spirit, and this specific product certainly deserves its spotlight on the ministr
A funky and beautifully fruity nose. Mildly woody that gives off a slight scent of roasted bitter almonds. Pear and green apples are singing loud. Light vanilla and white chocolate notes. There is some citrus going on as well, although not lemon or lime, think more along the line of ripe grapefruit - rind and all. I want to write “finally”, but this wonderfully complex nose keeps on growing, however, I cannot move on from the nose without saying plastic. I just want to