August 2, 2015

Malternatives on Sunday, extreme rums

Ha, rum. What we’ve found out after having tasted around 400 different rums, is that rum is no sure bet, and that the category’s just not an obvious and easy way out of the pretty embarrassing contemporary world of whisky. Because what many find NASty and deceptive in whisky, always happened in rum. Fake age, flavouring, aromatisation, dodgy provenances, marketing gone mad, counterfeit stories… Rum was there before whisky.

Don papa 10

Don Papa 10 yo (43%, OB, Philippines, +/-2015)

Some highly controversial ‘rum’, loathed by purists, but marketed with supreme skills and methods - and a sublime and smart packaging. I’ve already tried this baby blind among fifteen other rums for some large Awards operation, and ranked it as… #16. Colour: mahogany. Nose: Cherry Heering, guignolet, caraway-flavoured aquavit, Cointreau and Grand-Marnier, pineapple liqueur… In short, everything but rum. But I know many a punter who’ll love this on ice. It’s bottled bubblegum, and I guess it should go well with Red Bull. Mouth: massively sugary and liquoricy. I doubt this is rum, and I even doubt it’s 10. It is some kind of liqueur, or at least spiced and flavoured rum. They should say so on the label if you ask me, imagine someone who bought some Foursquare or Hampden or Trois Rivières as his first rum, and then buys this. Or worse, a whisky lover who’d think ‘let’s try rum for a change’. You lose, please shoot again! Finish: very short. Not much beyond the sugar. Glycerine-y feeling. Comments: I had found the earlier NAS (which does NOT mean No Added Sugar – ha) kind of acceptable because there was some kind of freshness to it, but this is just syrup. Not too bad as some kind of liqueur, but certainly not rum. Marketing (on the short run): 99 points. SGP:920 - 49 points.

Trois Rivières, he said…

Trois Rivières 'Triple Millésime' (42%, OB, Martinique, agricole, 2015)

A vatting of 1998, 2000 and 2007 vintages. I believe the Scots should be allowed to advertise that as well, as long as they add the proportions (you know, to avoid that famous drop of 50 years old that makes the whole ‘almost’ a 50 yo…) Colour: gold. Nose: nosing Brora 1972 after Bailey’s. Lovely dried bananas, toasted cake, tea, orange blossom, a bit of clay, some grass, liquorice, and, above all, what was missing the ‘the thing’, sugarcane! And gingerbread, a touch of cumin, crystallised ginger, yellow flowers… Mouth: the oak feels just a little bit, but other than that, there’s sufficient liquorice, mango chutney, cinnamon cake and various candied fruits and herbs (quinces, angelica) to make up for that. More than that. A little mint and eucalyptus as well. Very ‘agricole’ even if the palate feels a little thinner and less complex than the nose. Finish: good length, with a little salt, dill, and liquorice. Comments: very, very fine rhum for a rather fair price (around 40€). SGP:651 - 84 points.

St James ‘Millésime 250 ans’ (OB, Martinique, 2015, 800 decanters)

This is the new bottling everybody’s talking about, 800 decanters sold for… 800€ each (good news that they did not come up with 2000 decanters), a vatting of the vintages 1885, 1934, 1952, 1976, 1998 and 2000. I know what you think, a shame that they won’t tell you about the proportions – after all the regulations for Scotch do make sense. Yeah, how many drops of 1885? (great rhum, that one, by the way). Or is it only some 2000 plus a bottle of each other vintage thrown in? But I agree, that’s probably only spiteful gossip, apologies… No ideas as for the strength, as it’s not available yet. Colour: full amber. Nose: nah, it’s a great nose, complex, subtly oaky, with, granted, whiffs of warm pencil shavings, but also the loveliest marmalades, pineapple wine, strawberries, ‘a pack of liquorice allsorts’, tamarind, artisan crème de cassis, biscuits, chocolate ganache, praline, a little pipe tobacco, raisins, gingerbread… This nose is almost perfect. Mouth: the younger vintages speak out, as this is rather ‘nervous and bright’. It’s perhaps a tad thin (probably only 40% vol.) and maybe a little dominated by newish oak, but other than that, these blood oranges and pink grapefruits plus all the subtle spices (red curry, cinnamon, nutmeg) really work in sync. Love the tobacco in it, the black raisins, the prunes… Finish: a little short, and with quite some cinnamon and black tea. The raisiny aftertaste is great, though. Touches of pineapple and banana jellies. Comments: ‘more oomph!’ as Goethe would have said. This would have been an utter winner at 45 or 46% vol., but I still rather love it. SGP:651 - 86 points.

Good, only high flyers could survive after those excellent Martiniquans… Such as this baby, perhaps…

Monymusk 20 yo 1977/1997 (45%, Moon Import, Jamaica, 600 bottles)

In fact, this little Jamaican is an agricole and was made in pot stills. According to the bottle, the owners were Sherriff, but I’m not sure they were Bowmore’s Sherriffs. As for the bottler, as often with anything they put into their mouths, the Italians have been pioneers of high-end indie rum. Colour: gold. Nose: I think it is a mild Jamaican. You do get ‘dundery’ notes, olives, brake fluid, fermenting hay and all that at first nosing, but it’s soon to display more fruits, with this discreet rubberiness that’s not quite rubber, but that’s close (and more pleasant). Putty? Overripe apples, barley, cake, wax, maple syrup, a little wood smoke, perhaps a little charcoal… In a way, it’s a little ‘whisky’. Around Clynelish, if you will. Mouth: smashing whisk… I mean, rum, appropriately dirty for a Jamaican, but also complex and fruity. Imagine some kind of warm apple compote that you would have seasoned with olive crumbles, a drop of paint (ha), and orange peel. Having said that, it tends to lose steam after two minutes, with a sugariness appearing from the back. And yet, some spices are coming along, especially pepper. I still like a lot. Finish: quite long, both earthy and spicy, and lightly fruity/orangey. Contrasting flavours. Comments: hyper good for sure, just not a wham-bam old Jamaican that rips your head off in two seconds. SGP:662 - 87 points.

Yeah, to think that that great Monymusk and Don Papa 10 are both ‘rums’… But let’s have one that may, indeed, rip our heads off…

Caroni 24 yo 1982/2006 (58.3%, Velier, Trinidad, 4600 bottles)

Does this one really need an introduction? Colour: dark amber/coffee. Nose: well, it’s not the heaviest Caroni ever. I don’t know if the fifteen drums they’ve vatted were all ‘light’, or all ‘heavy’, or a mix, but what’s sure is that this nose is relatively gentle, not phenolic to the max at all, and rather all on chocolate cake, praline, dark tobacco (I think you call that maduro), and then plenty of dried bananas – without becoming heady at all. I have to say balance is perfect, and it does make me think of some old agricole of high quality. With water: yes, just perfect. Coffee/tequila? Love these earthy touches too, it gets more ‘heavy’ now. Mouth (neat): high oak impact, and yet it’s balanced and elegant. That’s because it’s rather liquorice, pinesap and honeydew that play first parts, which gives this baby a feeling of oak-aged chartreuse that I really love. There is also a little salt, olives, tarmac, burnt herbs and all that, but never quite like in a ‘heaviest’ Caroni. With water: oak oak oak, and oak. And yet, I find this feeling of quaffing walnut stain pretty pleasant. Maybe I should have embarked on wood-related careers. Like, carpenter. Finish: long, very oaky, and yet, as I said… Comments: pretty extreme. The nose was superb, the palate was great, but water brought out a whole oak tree. Careful! SGP:472 - 85 points.

All right, another old Velier for the road…

Port Mourant 34 yo 1974/2008 (54.5%, Velier, Demerara, 364 bottles)

I know, I’m looking for trouble as far as oak’s concerned, but who could resist one of these truly rare old Demeraras? Especially when it was distilled in some of these legendary wooden pot stills? What’s more, some 1975s by Velier have been high in my book, and a 1974 by Berry Bros has been high as well. So… Colour: coffee. This starts well. Nose: unusual for sure. Church incense, perhaps? Or visiting an old Buddhist temple somewhere in great China? And burnt oak, tapenade (I’ll explain it again, tapenade is a Provençal thing that blends anchovies, capers, and olives. Explosive and very tasty). So, tapenade, walnut stain again, bitter chocolate, a bag of prunes, charcoal, black pipe tobacco, tar and liquorice… And behind that tarry and very ‘dark’ wall, a few oranges. An experience. With water: yeah, brine! And black olives, a little concrete dust, coffee… and, there, big and vivid, dried porcinis. Mouth (neat): I didn’t know you could distil pu-erh tea. And that someone would add burnt sugar, black olives, salmiak, some salt, and some tobacco to the juice. Thick, heavy, rich, invasive… Totally coats your palate. Perhaps a wee bit tiring, but we have got sufficient stamina to stand that, haven’t we. With water: black olives, tobacco, salted fish (that would be anchovies again), tarry liquorice, and, above everything, not too much oak. Finish: very long, pleasantly tannic, salty, with dried fruits (it was about time), tobacco, liquorice, bitter oranges… and walnut stain. I mean, a feeling of walnut stain, we do not quaff walnut stain every other evening as if there was no tomorrow. Comments: I guess you could call this ‘heavy rum’, or perhaps even ‘old navy rum’. Sometimes as subtle as a sledgehammer, but I simply love this rather un-sweet style. Life is short, you know. SGP:472 - 89 points.

Another one, would that be reasonable? Like, another old Demerara?...

Demerara 26 yo (45%, Moon Import, 600 bottles, +/-1986)

Demerara 26 yo (46%, Moon Import, 600 bottles, +/-1986)

That is right, and old Demerara that was distilled around the late 1950s. Of course we’d have loved to know more about the provenance, but what’s sure is that many older bottlings of Demerara rum were from Port Mourant/Morant. Let’s see if we could tell (which I doubt – not that we’re not self-confident, mind you, but let’s not be too presumptuous). Colour: coffee. Nose: we have our winner. Exceptional nose, organised around coffee and parsley. I know, sounds unlikely but you wouldn’t imagine how well this works. Beef stock, cigars, walnut wine, old Comté cheese, game, perhaps a touch of garlic, bitter chocolate, coffee, Spanish ham (bellota stuff), menthol, myrtle, eucalyptus, seawater, chartreuse, parsley (indeed), chives, truffles, soups, bouillons, dried figs, new tyres… This is simply endless, and utterly complex. And above everything, it’s ‘a whole’, not just a ‘collage’. Very impressive. Mouth: a genuflexion please. This reminds me of the greatest pre-WWII Macallans. More the 1938s than the 1940s, I’d add (nah, of course I’m make this up – quite). Plain and utter killer, up there with the best aged spirits ever, amen. And yet, as I said, it’s ‘a whole’. That’s why I think it’s one of the best aged spirits ever, by the way. Yeah, it also reminds me a bit of the Springbank 12 yo OB for Samaroli, in some way, even if that one was even more complex. Finish: loses one point because I’d have loved to see it last forever, there! Seriously, this finish is magic, incredibly coherent and even clean (an old Demerara, they said!), and I just have to yield to this amazingly beautiful whisky. Excuse me, rum. Comments: I think this baby’s just become my favourite rum ever. Even above the very moving St James 1885 (see above). SGP:463 - 94 points.

(and grazzie mille, Francesco)

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