Doing rums, for Michael Jackson


Mars 27, 2022

	Happy International Whisk(e)y Day!
	Every year since 2008, here and elsewhere and on March 27, the original, truly non-commercial International Whisk(e)y Day commemorates the birthday of the much missed Michael Jackson, the great whisky writer (1942 - 2007). Today raise a glass to Michael Jackson and please help fight Parkinson's Disease!

Doing rums, for Michael Jackson

Before we tackle brandies again (next week!) Let's start this easy-easy…

Sample Eleven Blended Rum (44%, The Rum Mercenary and Kintra, 2019)

It says it is 'gentle and bold' and I think the bottle was designed awesomely. Colour: light gold. Nose: putty and wax, sugarcane juice, benzine, linseed oil, old magazines, ground after a heavy tropical shower. No complaining. Mouth: very good, cane-y, petroly, with overripe bananas and just one olive. The 44% vol. feel a little light, but that should be me. Very nice salty cane-iness. Finish: medium, this time with one or three black olives, beyond the cane. Comments: I think you could make stupendous mojitos or ti'punchs out of this, but it is a sipper too. Easy and smart composition, with a solid backbone.
SGP:552 - 85 points.

Caroni 23 yo 1998/2021 'Tortuga 2' (59.9%, Precious Liquors, Trinidad, cask #35)

Caroni 23 yo 1998/2021 'Tortuga 2' (59.9%, East Asia Whisky Company, Precious Liquors, and Sea Turtle Conservancy, Trinidad, cask #35)

Easy-easy, he said… Now this was done within a partnership between East Asia Whisky Company, Precious Liquors, and The Sea Turtle Conservancy. I cannot think of a better cause, except Ukraine, of course. Colour: gold. Nose: light Caroni, but with much shoe polish, metal polish, tomato sauce (all'arrabbiata) and castor oil. A little tabasco and sriracha. With water: manzanilla! Castrol! 2-stroke fumes! New MacBook! (this time with a keyboard that you could use, hope they're done with the cheap junk). Mouth (neat): some varnish as in the best bourbons, then smoked bacon, more sriracha, paint, varnish and tarragon. With water: smoky liquorice and roasted nuts. The core's not big, but the coating is perfect. Finish: medium, saltier and brinier, tarry and ashy, with green pepper in the aftertaste. Comments: absolutely excellent, despite the thinner body of a 'light' Caroni.
SGP:362 - 88 points.

New Yarmouth 26 yo 1994/2021 (59.1%, Thompson Bros., Jamaica, 271 bottles)

I am not a fan of New Yarmouth, I find them 'too much' and 'too binary'. There, I said it. Colour: amber. Nose: gas station, carbon paper and olives. With water: pencil shavings, Van Winkle, IKEA, glues. Mouth (neat): salted fudge, gresini sticks, focaccia, then liquorice, molasses and pancake syrup. Really very sweet. With water: bananas and olives stewed in liquorice, manuka honey and vodka? Very good but lacks a kick. Finish: long, on tarry and smoky brine. A lot of power but perhaps not a lot of body. Rotting bananas in the aftertaste. Comments: it's just that I'm a fan of Hampden and Worthy Park.
SGP:662 - 82 points.

Action, reaction…

JMWP Rum 15 yo (54%, Thompson Bros., Jamaica, 259 bottles)

What a lovely, dirty, punkish label, you would almost believe our friend Jamie Reid made it. But this should be Worthy Park, so shh… Colour: gold. Nose: huuuge, on old Comté cheese, pearish varnish, brine, old Gouda, pipe tobacco, Williams pear eau-de-vie… In truth I find this stunning, I'm sure it'll go well with foie gras. With water: forgot to say, that would be duck, it's too heavy for goose. Mouth (neat): exceptional spirit, focused, tight, smoky and ashy, simple and yet tertiary, salty, coastal… I think we'll mention oysters. With water: ooh, sorrel! Finish: very long, splendid, chiselled, with notes of Portuguese anchovy cream. Obrigada. Comments: the only question that remains is, between Worthy Park and Hampden, which is Ardbeg and which is Lagavulin? What do you say? Very well selected, Phil and Simon (and Colin and Ros). A pinnacle of malternative rum.
SGP:463 - 91 points.

It's getting tough, let's avoid Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua or even Barbados…

Clarendon 10 yo 2010/2021 (63%, Dràm Mor, Jamaica, cask #433043, 295 bottles)

Clarendon is Monymusk. Colour: gold. Nose: sour brine, seawater, gherkins, olives, capers, new IKEA stuff, glues, extreme liquorice, varnishes, carbolineum… haha. With water: carbon, ink, spent engine oil, green grapefruit, starfruit, physalis, Kawasaki fumes, carbon dust. Mouth (neat): one of the best. Huge salty liquorice, tar, grapefruits, glue, oysters, pepper, plastics, Play-doh… Gets extremely dry, extremely tarry. Massive rum! With water: tarry smoke, lime, greengages, rhubarb and kiwi… I find this green fruits + tar combo just totally impeccable. Finish: very long, ashy. More ashes than in the Worthy Parks and Hampdens. Comments: these Clarendons are austere, they may be the Arvo Pärts of rum. Hope Putin's Russian dogs will leave Estonia alone.
SGP:363 - 90 points.

I believe we need to stay in Jamaica…

Monymusk 9 yo 2010/2020 'SBS' (62%, Velier, National Rums of Jamaica, 15 barrels, 4660 bottles)

Never heard of an 'SBS' marque at Monymusk. If it's MBS, that's no esters to almost no esters. One Monymusk that I was still having in the stash. Colour: gold. Nose: a mistake here, this is ten times sweeter, rounder, cakier, un-Jamaican, certainly very nice, just out of place. Feels Cuban, all right, all right. With water: bananas flambéed, acacia honey, Havana Club. See what I mean. Mouth (neat): tighter and saltier, but the body's light and almost thin. Pineapple wine, light brine, cane juice, sugar syrup. With water: thin body but a pleasant salty fruitiness over it. Lemon syrup and cane syrup. Finish: medium, light, a little earthy, slightly salty, thinnish. A drop of seawater, say from the Mediterranean, plus caramel and orange liqueur. Not exactly a malternative, but there. Comments: good but thin, light, a little frustrating and un-Jamaican. I would have said Dominican.
SGP:552 - 80 points.

We could do with a bonus (tasted a few days later)…

Foursquare 13 yo 2007/2021 (60.9%, Dram Mor, Barbados, 277 bottles)

This thirteen years old FS spent the first eight years of its life at the Distillery, so does that count as 'tropical aging'? Isn't there sometimes too much politics in rum? Should the dedicated drinker care? Let's discuss that one day, safe from any lobbying eyes and ears (and, above all, mouths)… Colour: gold. Nose: very foursquare, oily and yet light, with some smoky chocolate, banana foam, deep-roasted nuts, black praline, touches of spent engine oil perhaps… In truth I find it a tad more pot-still-y than usual, but that may be the insanely high strength. With water: a little bacon, a little toasted bread, the lightest toffee ever, popcorn… This sure is light rum, in fact. Mouth (neat): coconut and varnish, then triple sec and peanut oil, plus just maize grain whisky (ala North British). Well, this time I'm finding it less pot-still-y than usual, go figure. With water: no no no, hold on, this time we're finding a mentholy greenness that would rather remind us of some cachaças. I think we're somewhat lost. Finish: medium, with delicate herbal touches. Perhaps chamomile, and surely a small pink olive in the aftertaste. Comments: we can't and won't follow Foursquare throughout the ages (no time for that, remember, only Sundays) but I enjoyed this very medium one that was very 'self-blend' indeed, but perhaps not very malternative:. Forgot to mention orange cake in the aftertaste.
SGP:641 - 85 points.

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