Actually this was supposed to be a bigger session but as you may have noticed, we have been extremely busy once again. It does has been an incredibly crazy year for us! That said, I thought it is better to give you this small session than nothing at all. Please do not expect much from us in the coming weeks, however but I plan to return to full duty in November.

Beenleigh Director’s Selection (37%): A fancy decanter, a “very old Rum” and 37%. Please fill out the blanks. Nose: Oha, my first impression is cheap molasses Rum from Guadeloupe or Martinique. It kinda has these vibes. By the way, I am not referring to quality but to retail prices here. A potpourri of ripe and dried fruits welcomes the connoisseur, with plums, guava, pear and sweet mangosteen. This is somewhere beetween amazing, gimicky and rather bad and based on the nose alone it is really hard to tell. Palate: Way less intense and less dense than the nose. Those sweet overripe fruits have been killed by the water I think and this isn’t much more than merely a mixed compote of the fruits mentioned above. What is more, it tastes very musty and mouldy or, put differently, just wrong. I really do not know if that’s the influence of the decanter or if the distillate is just this odd/ bad. It is really weird that the notes from the nose don’t translate as you thought they would and should. Finish: We just want to get rid of this taste at this point. It lasts for waaay too long and I really mean it: This finish lasts indefinitely. As we do not know if our sample comes from a bad bottle decanter or not: (no score)

Compagnie des Indes Australia 7YO “Sherry Finish” (42%): We do not know the distillery to be honest but at this point it seem almost certain that this is Beenleigh. I think the tasting should give us a good indication. Nose: Mirabelle, chocolate/ cocoa, either pear of quince and gooseberry. While I kinda like all of these individually, the mix doesn’t make a lot of sense to me I am afraid. After a while a hint of leather and oak, i.e. notes coming from the finish. Palate: The finish is now even more obvious than it was in the nose and my believe is strengthened: it didn’t work. Flavourwise, this is pretty much a copy of the nose, except that I would call out Calvados paired with chocolate this time. Then pears, leather, mirabelle, hay and grenadine. Finish: Once again, more of the same. It is relatively long actually, with notes from the distillate and the cask. To be honest with you, I’ve stopped questioning why Compagnie des Indes keeps on doing these things. We always welcome experiments but with these bottlings I can often times tell you beforehand what we are about to get. By the way, the answer either has to be that a) they didn’t believe in the quality of the unfinished Rum or b) it simply sells. (71/100)

& Fine Spirits Beenleigh 2015 4YO (57,18%): This should be an LMDW bottling if I am not mistaken. Nose: Rich chocolate, nougat, nutmeg, apples, pear, lingonberry, now lots of allspice and pepper, cinnamon and definitely caraway. Wow, I didn’t expect such a complex nose to be honest. I am not sure how much I really like it but it is quite something. Palate: Somewhat to my surprise, the caraway made it to the palate and can be found next to apples, pears, cocoa, allspice, chocolate, oak and coffee. While the palate isn’t much different from the nose, it is just as complex. Finish: Medium long with apple, vanilla and the spices from the cask. Even though it is an outstanding Rum (I guess great barrel) in many regards, I am not a fan of this profile personally. Alas, you might be a bit surprised by the score but that’s exactly why we always preach that a score always has to go hand in hand with the actual review. (82/100)