The first aged Renegades today! I cannot help it but oh boy, I can’t wait to taste them. Fortunately for us, they feature familiar estates, so we do have some sort of reference point for these Rums.

Renegade Études New Bacolet (55%): From Upper Combe. Nose: This smells very sweet and young, almost like an unaged cane juice spirit. It has a lot of La Mauny vibes to it if you ask me, namely sugar cane, lime and red berries. Going over my notes from the Pre-cask New Bacolet, I can find a few similar associations, as that one was also decidedly Martinican to me. Palate: Softer now with some vanilla and toasted coconut but the notes from the nose are still present. Aside from that, I can barely find any additional notes. After a while apples and Rum-soaked raisins, some Madeira wine perhaps. Finish: More sweet Madeira, grapes and raisins. Here and there lime. I gotta say that the alcohol isn’t integrated very well and that the Rum didn’t really make a leap from its unaged counterpart – quite the opposite in fact. I think we have to wait for a few more years. (73/100)

Renegade Études Dunfermline (55%): Dunfermline from Mango Lane is up next. Together with Pearls, the pot still Dunfermline was our favorite of the unaged Rums. Nose: Where’s this somewhat dirty profile I like so much? This is sweet, floral and even perfumed. Sweet peaches, foul mango, more sweetened notes, cheap perfume as certain ladies on the street would have it… nah, this cannot be it. Something went terribly wrong here. Palate: Better, if only the nose weren’t there. We still get those sweet, artificial notes but now also something between bad Calvados and cheap Cider. This really hasn’t been made for me. Finish: I just want to get this out of my mouth. I don’t really have many positive things to say here anymore, so we shall just leave it as it is. (45/100)

Renegade Études Pearls (55%): From Flats. So far this has been an extremely disillusioning session. Let’s hope that Pearls makes the cut. Nose: Definitely a different animal, very impulsive and obtrusive – but sweet and perfumed once again. If I have to describe it with a single phrase, it would be ‘perfumed rotting vegetables’. Other notes are lactic acids/ foul milk or yoghurt and candied peaches. Super weird stuff and once again not up my alley. Palate: Just like with the Dunfermline, the palate is much, much better and quite different from the nose. Sour and slightly acidic notes shape the profile, think along the lines of unripe apples and citrus fruits. It’s not bad but it doesn’t match and marry the nose at all. Both live separate lives and never get together. Finish: Quite sour with quince, apples and a few spices here and there. Still not made for me, but it does have a few interesting rudiments. (64/100)

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