April 26, 2015

This is Sunday, here’s another bag-o-rum

So this is Sunday, time for rum. Rummage rummage rummage… (yes, indeed, diving to new lows)

Cana

Flor de Caña 4 yo 'Gold' (40%, OB, Nicaragua, +/-2013)

Just everybody seems to like this wee baby. It’s true that the light colour (for some commercial rum) already is a good sign. Colour: pale gold. Nose: it’s fresh and it’s fruity, perhaps a little too light. There’s this slightly sour fruitiness from sugar cane, perhaps a little tobacco and possibly a little too much vanilla, but its not unpleasant. Having said that, such noses can make it flabby on the palate (in my short experience), let’s see… Mouth: sweet, soft, a little sugary, and perhaps a little weak. Pineapple and banana flambéed, molasses, muscovado sugar and sweet vanilla cream. Perhaps rather for mixing? Finish: a bit short, sugary. Sugar cane syrup in abundance. Plain white sugar in the aftertaste, as well as a little artichoke. That’s fun. Comments: I find it totally uninteresting, despite the artichoke. Probably not sipping rum, so my bad. SGP:730 - 55 points.

Mocambo 10 yo 'Pistola' (40%, OB, Mexico, +/-2013)

A tasteful, sophisticated and very elegant bottling. I’ve had some Mocambos that I enjoyed, but this one’s really scary, isn’t it.

Colour: suspiciously dark amber. Nose: weird, but not that appalling, I have to say. Overcooked fruits, fruity molasses, cologne, prune sauce, then wet concrete and gravel, potpourri, vetiver, green oranges… Its quite perfumy, but bizarrely, that kind of works. Very unusual, in any case. Mouth: weird, but again, there’s some fun to this. More overcooked fruits with hundreds of liquorice allsorts and this kind of sweet spice mix they give you with the bill in Indian restaurants. What they call ‘Indian chewing-gum’ – and I have to say I like that aniseed-based mix. Finish: rather short and probably too caramelly and molassy, but the anise keeps it fresh. A miracle. Comments: seriously, this baby taste a bit like these unlikely liqueurs we buy at airports when travelling back from exotic countries (because the whiskies have gotten totally uninteresting in Travel Retail). Holidays! I don’t find it bad, at all, just… unlikely. SGP:820 - 70 points.

Hero 15 yo 'Solera' (42%, OB, Dominican Republic, +/-2014)

I have to say I’ve seldom found interesting rum that came from the Dominican Republic. They’re usually plain sugar bombs – but of course I haven’t tasted hundreds of them. It’s also meant to be the rum of the South-American heroes such as, I guess, Zapata, Guevara, Marti, Villa, Bolivar (all dead so they won’t complain or ask for fees) or Shakira. Well not Shakira. Also, what’s 15 years old, the rum or just the solera? Colour: gold. Nose: hello? Sweet sugar cane, a few grassy touches, some oranges, some caramel, some sugarcane syrup. Kind of okay, it’s just that there isn’t much happening, so far. Mouth: typical liqueury Dominican rum. The background isn’t bad, with some hay and sugar cane, but the front is too sweet. Both Cointreau and Grand-Marnier are drier drinks if you ask me. Finish: very short. Leaves some sugar on your tongue. A bit of liquorice too. Comments: some acceptable sugar cane liqueur, but certainly not a malternative. SGP:820 - 60 points.

Time for some more serious stuff. Perhaps…

Indonesia 10 yo 2004/2015 (43%, Compagnie des Indes, cask #581, 259 bottles)

Interesting! The distillery’s not disclosed, and sure we could try to play it ‘googling Sherlock’, but we haven’t got much time for that. Colour: white wine. Nose: hey hey hey! There’s something pleasantly dirty, or rather say phenolic or ‘dundery’, with brine, olives, pitch, salmiak, new tyres… What I also just adore is this rising honeyed profile, between heavy chestnut and fir honeydew. What a surprise, this is almost Jamaican. Mouth: perhaps a notch less Jamaican, but there’s a lot of strong liquorice, cough syrup, black olives, Tai soup (coriander and chillies)… There is a little sugar as well, but all remains very fine. The background is even a little coastal (anchovies?) Finish: quite long at this strength, briny, liquoricy… Comments: total surprise. I’m not too sure, but this baby could be the natural son of some heavy Jamaican and some lighter Mauritian. Very well done Compagnie, this is what indie bottling is about (if I may). SGP:562 - 87 points.

While we’re at it…

Worthy Park 7 yo 2007/2015 (43%, Compagnie des Indes, Jamaica, cask #WP31, 303 bottles)

Pure pot still rum from an old Jamaican distillery, what could be better? Colour: gold. Nose: hold on, what is this? This is Alsatian fir liqueur, not rum! I’ve rarely nosed a spirit that was this piny and resinous. Pinesap, pinesap and pinesap, plus pineapple starting to rot. I swear I’ve not written that just to make some crappy alliteration. Even more unusual than the Indonesian, I’m so curious about the palate… Mouth: I’m afraid this is great. Making some mojito with pine needles instead of mint leaves. What it may lack would be a little more complexity, and there is a wee feeling of sugar, but this limy and piny style just works. Totally new to me. Finish: perhaps not very long, but I find a touch of salt, all for the better. And oh-so Jamaican indeed. Comments: I don’t think I’ve ever tried another Worthy Park, so this a first – and not a last. Again, well done Compagnie des Indes! (although 45-46% would have worked even better IMHO). SGP:561 - 85 points.

I had planed to try to go even higher (so to speak) but this is becoming difficult, isn’t it. Unless we call in heavy artillery…

Sainte Luce 1977 (45%, Chantal Comte, Martinique, +/-1992)

Sainte Luce is actually Trois Rivières by another name. Naturally, this is rhum agricole. Colour: deep gold. Nose: curiously silent, this baby’s really struggling after the unusual Indonesian and Jamaican. A little dried banana, some leather, a bit of tobacco, a touch of earth, some liquorice, some vesou, some pinesap… No, wait, it does take off a bit, but that’s more the first flights by the Wright bros or Clément Ader than Ariane V or an Atlas rocket. Mouth: a little hot this time, with a lack of definition and some grassy/gritty notes that I do not find very enjoyable. Some greenish coffee, perhaps, as well as a little marmalade. It’s good, just not great, IMHO. Finish: quite long but once again, this baby doesn’t seem to know where it’s heading. Comments: good but frankly, I had expected much more. SGP:441 - 78 points.

An Indonesian winning a wee rum session? But seriously, folks? (as Joe Walsh would have said…)

Check the index of all rums I've tasted so far