Rum from Tahiti sounds fany, doesn’t it? So far we’ve only ever had a single Rum from the island, which can hardly be described as “Rum” by our standards. Now there are two more distilleries on the island which produce Rhum from fresh sugar cane juice of an ancestral French Polynesian variety. That’s where my thoughts went from “fancy” to “exciting”. So together with the Tamure we’ve had before, we’ve finally managed to taste Rhum from all of the country’s distilleries.

Mana’o Tahiti (50%): A new distillery producing from fresh cane juice, using a pot still and bottling at 50%!? They seem to know what they are doing! Nose: Very fruity and floral, with fresh cane juice, rose water, jasmin and different citrus fruits. Quite lovely. Deeper in the glass we can also find more earthy and vegetal notes, but they are mostly playing a supporting role. Palate: Quite different from the nose. The Rhum’s character shifts more towards the earthy notes and leaves a much more musty impression. Add corn, grains and related vegetal notes. Don’t get me wrong, this is a solid product, but the profile of the palate is not on par with my reference Rhums of this category. Unfortunately there’s also a certain unpleasant note towards the finish that kinda ruins it for me. Finish: The worst part of the Rhum, as it provides more of said unpleasant note that’s really hard to name. The nose was really good, what followed rather mediocre. (69/100)

Manutea VO “ex-Banyuls” (58,7%): This is a Rhum Attitude selection, a cask strength single cask Rum with a Bayuls finish. Nose: Clearly red grapes, plum juice, Rum soaked raisins, cherries, chocolate and a few herbal notes. Very interesting, even though this is extremely cask driven. The problem is that we only have no comparisons and don’t know what the raw distillate tastes like. Palate: Ultra sweet with the Banyuls (yeah…), grapes, sugar, mint, rather dry wood despite all the sweetness, some sulphate, plums and no matter how you twist and turn it, more and more fortified wine. It’s not bad at all, but there’s simply not much of the distillate left I think. By the way, the alcohol is integrated super-well! Finish: Not very long with those sweet Banyul and the dry wood notes at the same time. A few herbs are in the mix as well. So the cask has taken over the Rum entirely, but at this point (young distillery, no seriously aged expressions available) I don’t mind it. (78/100)

Support Single Cask Rum by becoming a Patron

We are a private, independent blog and always will be. Alas, there is absolutely no revenue stream for us. If you are a frequent reader and want to support us you can now subscribe to one of our memberships on Patreon. That will give you access to (expanding) bonus content, live streams or even Rum-goodies. Or maybe just think about it as buying us a wee dram…