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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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July 15, 2018 |
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San Christóbal de Nicaragua 18 yo 1999/2017 (56.5%, Kintra, Nicaragua, cask #48, 244 bottles) 
Nicaragua’s one of the most controversial rum countries these days, because of some kidney disease that’s afflicting – and, apparently, killing - thousands of sugarcane workers. But that sort of thing also happens with the cheap clothes we buy, our bananas, our pineapples, perhaps some of our wines, our computers and smartphones… I know, not very rejoicing… Colour: gold. Nose: pure clean rounder rum, rather fresh, and pretty much all on natural banana, apple skins, fresh cane juice, a wee touch of earth… With water: full white chocolate mode, also oranges. Mouth (neat): rather bright, on orange juice and light caramel. It’s a rather light spirit but it’s quite good, I think. With water: fructose, icing sugar, Easter eggs… Finish: rather short and quite sugary. Comments: certainly good but not my preferred style at all, but remember, I’m a malt lover and will always taste any rums from that very particular POV.
SGP:540 - 78 points. |
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The Travelling Man from Belize 9 yo 2007/2017 (66.4%, Kintra, Belize, cask #44, 265 bottles) 
If this is not Travellers, I eat my beret. Colour: full gold. Nose: total nail polish remover at first, then orange cake and cane juice. Extremely pungent, let’s be careful… With water: more depth, grasses and herbs, banana skins, orange blossom, rotting oranges, earth, new teak wood… Mouth (neat): huge, varnishy, bonbony, bourbony, oaky… Some tobacco for sure, some green tannins, but then again it is extremely strong and almost undrinkable when unreduced. So with water: really a different league after then Nicaraguan. More brutal and more complex at the same time, more cane-y for sure, and much closer to some high-kerosene bourbon as well. Finish: long, rather on vanilla fudge and butterscotch. Comments: rum from Kentucky! Well not quite, but you get the idea.
SGP:530 - 82 points. |
Let’s check another Travellers… |
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Travellers 2007/2017 (66.1%, L’Esprit, Belize, cask #BB36, 267 bottles)
Colour: full gold. Nose: very similar, but this one’s also got more warm sawdust, bark, and a curious soapiness that may well go away once water’s been added. Hand cream. With water: coconut, banana skin, tealeaves, oranges. Mouth (neat): we’re really extremely close to the Kintra now. Same feeling of high-power bourbon, flavoured with oranges. Varnish, cellulose... With water: same bourbon. I mean, same rum. Cane juice, oranges, popcorn, varnish, bourbon. Finish: same, rather long, fudge-y. Hints of pineapple and coconut again in the aftertaste. Comments: probably from the same parcel of casks.
SGP:530 - 82 points. |
Let’s seek more deepness in Guyana… |
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Diamond 18 yo 1998/2017 (46%, Hunter Laing, Kill Devil, Guyana, 300 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: quite different from your ‘average’ Diamond, that is to say rather more on marzipan, putty, plasticine and spice cakes, and less ‘phenolic’. Perhaps that’s the vintage, as we’re rather used to younger Diamonds. Mouth: indeed it is a rather unusual one, it rather feels ‘blended’ and, in that sense, El-Dorado-y. Just with much less added sugar, no worries. Sugarcane, a little plasticine, maraschino, very sweet curry sauce, pineapple sweets… Finish: medium, on pretty much similar flavours. A very wee touch of glue. Comments: fine, but not one of those sometimes explosive Diamonds.
SGP:551 - 80 points. |
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Enmore 29 yo 1988/2018 (48%, Compagnie des Indes, Guyana, cask #GEN2, 237 bottles) 
An almost thirty years old Enmore distilled in the wooden Versailles still, that’s quite a coup by the Compagnie des Indes. Remember that when Versailles closed down, the old still was moved to Enmore. Colour: light gold. Nose: it’s quite unusual, rather starting with some fennel and aniseed, liquorice allsorts, old molasses, copper, then we have wee whiffs of cologne and Cadum, some purer cane juice, and then preserved pineapples and a very discreet smoky combo (tar, rubber, burning cigarettes). After ten minutes, Scandinavian salted liquorice is running the show. Mouth: this is much brinier. Oyster juice, celeriac, pickled capers, olives, tar and liquorice, old Ardbeg (yup), then many bruised bananas flavoured with a drop of umami sauce. A feeling of burnt molasses in the background, and perhaps the day’s coffee at the office, around 6pm. It is, I have to say, very complex. Finish: rather long, on a mixture that would have involved sweet liquorice, marzipan, and cranberries. Salty/tarry aftertaste. Comments: this old one seemed a little fragile at times, but it has always come out okay. And indeed, it’s very complex… Rather loved it! Other old Enmores have been a little less exciting, I think, but perhaps weren’t they ‘Versailles’.
SGP:463 - 90 points. |
Look, since we were having some Kintras, I’ve got this one too… For the road! |
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Foursquare 14 yo 2002/2016 (57.7%, KIntra, Barbados, 240 bottles)
I’ve heard good things… And I’ve already tried some magnificent 2002s! Colour: white wine. Nose: this is Foursquare at its esteriest, if I may. Ridden with olives green and black, rotting bananas and damsons, carbonic things and tarry matters, and just seaweed. Brilliant. With water: gets mineral, always a brilliant development. Crushed chalk and fresh clay, plus a good few drops of the sharpest sauvignon blanc ever. Mouth (neat): indeed, some Jamaican Foursquare, plus a rather sharpish citrusy side, rather more towards blood oranges than straight lemons. It is an exceptional distillate. With water: fantastic, you could pour this over big fat oysters (once you’ve run out of Lagavulin). Finish: long, salty, olive-y, coastal, perfect. Some very strong liquorice that wrecks your tongue in the aftertaste. Comments: the very definition of a malternative rum – in my little book. Well, maybe not if your favourite malt is Glenkinchie, eh. Love this bone-dry style that, as they say in Mexico, takes no prisoners. Greatly done, Kintra!
SGP:464 - 91 points. |
 Check the index of all rums we've tasted so far
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