There are just so many rums from this batch out there, we just had to do another session. And before the questions start to appear again, yes, these are all from Damoiseau! Cadenhead’s Bellevue “GMBV” 1998 16YO (57,1%): We start with a slightly older bottling. GMBV is a typical Main mark by the way. I…
Port Mourant 1990
Happy Easter! I feel like we should have done a Happy Ester tasting but let’s safe that for some other time and stop at Port Mourant again. We never do get fed up with it, do we!? James MacArtuhr’s Port Mourant 1990 (50%): Unfortunately we know neither the age nor the bottling date of this one…
HSE
Is this really our first HSE session!? Oh my… Today it is distilled at Le Simon, which dates back to 1862 and has been dubbed the “ghostwriter distillery” by several people since they a) are not open to the public and b) do not produce rhum under their own name. Habitation Saint-Étienne (HSE) had to…
April’s Fool 2020: “Señor Popo”
After months, perhaps even years, of searching I’ve finally found a rum collector in Panama City who not only has the entire, incredibly rare, range of Señor Popo, but who was also willing to send over some samples. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, I won’t have to tell you how rare…
Her Highness, VSG (from the ’90s)
This session was supposed to feature two new, old Versailles, namely the Rum Artesanal Enmore (Versailles) 1994 25YO and the Flensburg Rum Company Enmore (Versailles) 1992 27YO. For the latter, we do have a proper sparring partner, for the former, we seem to have finished the amazing Cadenhead’s Enmore (Versailles) “REV” 1994 11YO some time…
Longing for Longueteau
After having Karukera a week or two ago, it is time for more from the distillery’s other brand, Longueteau. Longueteau Ambré (~ early 2000s, 40%): The ‘old’ Longueteau Ambré. Nose: A bit thin but quite aromatic. I get peppers, junipers, a spice mix (mostly more peppers, nutmeg and cloves), some vegetal notes which seem to…
Distillery Ranking
When we’ve introduced scoring on this blog, one of our goals was to come up with rankings regarding distilleries and bottlers. When I was working on these numerical rankings, I quickly came to realize two things, which I didn’t think about beforehand. Firstly, when going by these two categories, the sample sizes for many bottlers…
Karukera again
Last time when we’ve had Karukera we did like it but we were missing a real cracker. At least partly, that might have been selection bias as we are having what looks like the more exciting bottlings today (on paper at least). Karukera “Four Daughters” 2011 6YO (54,1%): This one has been released for Velier‘s…
Ethereal – A Single Cask Rum bottling
I am super happy to announce the first bottling for and by this little blog! Together with our buddy Dominik from Rum Artesanal, we are proud to release “Ethereal”, a magnificent blend featuring three of our very favorite distilleries with some of the best vintages that have ever come out of them! So why a…
Caroni 1993
With the 1993 vintage you never know what you’ll get. There are very light and subpar rums such as the Origin R. Caroni 1993 21YO (really closer to neutral spirit than to Caroni), extremely woody weirdos such as the Bristol/ 1423 1993 21YO (that one was extremely bad imo) and then one of my very…
Fiji
South Pacific Distillery is another of our secret favourites. Their style is just so unique and aromatic that it is almost always worth checking them out. I just found some of their column still rums rather boring but as we are about to see today, they can even produce good column still distillate. All hail,…
Hampden 1998
After the 1992 vintage we’ve had some time ago, we shall continue with the 1998 batch, which has the same HLCF marque. For an overview on Hampden and its marks, click here. Kill Devil Hampden 1998 18YO (46%): Let’s start with a pair at drinking strength. Hampden rarely ever works for me at reduced strength…
Single Cask Rum 