Rum Symposium Amsterdam

Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 18 - Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve - 45% abv. Today I am going to jump back to a rum that was released in late 2017, the Worthy Park’s Single Estate Reserve. A little background on one of Jamaica’s most prominent rum producers; Worthy Park Estate has been producing sugar cane since 1720 and its earliest on record production of rum was already in 1741 (although it was likely earlier than this). In 2004 Worthy Park’s distillery received a massive

Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 17 - 1423 Single Barrel Selection - Jamaica 2007 (11 yo) - 59% abv. Yet another new release from 1423 in Denmark, this time the Jamaica 2007. Distilled at Moneymusk, which is owned by the National Rums of Jamaica who also are whole or partial owners of Long Pond, Clarendon and Innswood aging facility. While Jamaica is often associated with heavy high-ester funk, rums from pure single pots from Moneymusk often have a somewhat subdued funk when compar

Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 16 - Velier Royal Navy Very Old Rum - 57.18% abv. Firstly, sorry for the lack of the promised Day 15 review - my son was born, so I think that was a pretty acceptable excuse 😉. Also a very good reason to celebrate today with one of my personal favourites - Velier's Royal Navy Very Old Rum! Back in the day of Navy rums, these were blends consisting of rums that were acquired from journeys from island to island in the Caribbean. Often bottled at gunpowd

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 6 - Appleton Estate 15 yo - 43% abv. This limited release Appleton Estate rum, hailing from one of Jamaica’s main rum players, is a 15 year aged rum that was produced specifically for the Canadian market - Canada being Appleton Estate’s largest market. As with the majority of Appleton releases, this is a blend of both pot and column still. Typically when compared to other Jamaican funk bombs, such as Worthy Park and Hampden, Appleton produces a slig

Rum-Review-A-Day: Day 5 - Duncan Taylor Single Cask Rum - Long Pond 2000 (15 yo) - 51.9% abv. Another rum hailing from beautiful Jamaica! This time from Trelawny Parish based distillery Long Pond on the northwestern coast of the island. As with the majority of rums hailing from this region, and this whole island for that matter (with a few exceptions), Long Pond releases some funk heavy high ester Jamaican rums. On a quick detour from the rum itself, Long Pond experienced

Worthy Park Cask Selection Series #5 - Port - 56% abv. Now down to the last of the 3 new Cask Selection releases from Worthy Park, one that I have heard only great things about, and the one that on my initial run-though of the bunch, was my favourite…Today it’s time for the Port cask finish. Bottled at 56% abv. and only 585 bottles produced. Again, as with the other cask selection releases, this has seen both American ex-bourbon barrels as well as a finish in ex-Port ca

Worthy Park Cask Selection Series #4 - Madeira - 58% abv. Following up on the Worthy Park Cask Selection #3 Sherry cask, today we take a deeper look at Cask #4 Madeira Finish! As with the other Cask Selections, this juice has spent time in both American ex-bourbon casks and then finished off in ex-Madeira casks. It is bottled at cask strength, which in this case is 58% abv. This round of bottling resulted in only 677 bottles, so get ‘em when you can! Now the fun part! - St

Worthy Park Cask Selection Series #3 - Sherry - 57% abv. I’m sure many people have seen these flashing across their screens recently, so I thought I would sit down with the first of the new series of casks selections from Jamaica’s wonderful Worthy Park. Traditionally, Worthy Park (and pretty much all Jamaican rums for that matter) are aged solely in American ex-bourbon barrels, as was also the case for Worthy Park’s Signature release that was bottled at 45%. However, r

Hampden Estate Pure Single Jamaican Rum - Overproof - 60% abv. Oh hell yes! I have been waiting to sit down with this one since I heard that it was going to be released! Hampden’s very own 7 year tropically aged overproof?! Expectations are high! The second the cork comes out of the bottle you can smell it across the room! Jamaica! High ester funk and gasoline. I normally don’t fuss about this but the colour is gorgeous. Deep golden orange and caramel. On the nose I imm

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

Harpoon Jamaica rum - 73% abv. - From what I can find about this, it’s a barrel aged Jamaican rum. Can’t find age. No mention of dosing, although at its 73% abv. and the dryness on the nose, I’m guessing it’s pure. This is dark and heavy. I should also say that this goes for around 25€ for 1000ml....let’s see what it offers. The nose - Take some butter, throw it in a hot pan. Add brown sugar. Let this form a butterscotch. Add some bananas and caramelize for a few minut

Stolen overproof pot still Jamaican rum - aged 6 years - Hampden Estate - 61.5% abv. - Going with Johnny Drejer’s lead tonight and will dig in to the Stolen overproof. Firstly, before I get in to this, a brief background on how I came across this one. I had seen a few posts about this rum and always been intrigued, so when I got the opportunity to snag one while I was in San Francisco, I did so immediately. Once I posted a photo of it, I received a message from Johnny t

The Funk Jamaican Pot Still - 50% abv. - I have no problem declaring my love for heavy-funky-white-unaged-Pot-still-Jamaican-rums (I believe that should be one word). I have always praised Hampden’s Rum Fire and Worthy Park’s Rum Bar overproof. So, when I heard that another high-proof white beauty was coming out of Worthy Park, my hopes were high! I will do my best to not compare to other rums that I know and love and just describe what I find in my glass: The Funk? Ye