More or less at random today. I am thinking different vintages and not resorting to Velier this time. I am not sure if that is going to work out, after all it is mostly best of the rest these days but every now and then we find a real gem among these. M.Wigman Caroni Precious…
Tag: Berry’s Finest
WIRD/ WIRR/ Rockley/ Blackrock 1986 encore (old ones)
After the young ones, it is a pleasure to present the old ones as well! Berry Bros & Rudd Barbados (WIRR) 1986 21YO (46%): The youngest of the old ones, bottled at drinking strength. Oh yeah, that was still pretty much the standard in the first decade of the 2000s… Nose: Compared to the “young…
Hampden 1990
One of, if not the most legendary Hampden batch. Sure, 1993 might have produced the very best Hampden ever, yet 1990 just seems to be a bit better overall. By the way, these Rums wear the marque C<>H, which stands for an ester range of 1300-1400 gr/hlaa. Berry Bros & Rudd Hampden 1990 17YO (46%):…
Port Mourant 1975
Essentially antique Port Mourants today. Some have an excellent reputation, others, well, rather an average one. I am not stressing it all time but that’s why we do semi-blind tastings whenever possible. Sure, the difference in abv can often be telling but it is still the best we can do. At least colour is not…
St. Lucia 1999
We’re back with St. Lucia Distillers, one of our secret favorites. Secret because there just haven’t been many releases and because so far at least, the official bottlings didn’t really convince us. At least not to the same extent as the IBs. With the distillery not selling bulk anymore and promises of more pure pot…
Rums with an Islay-Whisky Finish
What do you do if you have a bad cask? Right, give it a fancy finish! But hey, some people claim that there are also great rums that might get even better with these fancy finishes. I am not so sure, but what I know is that some styles and base-rums, if you want, are…
German Rum Festival Berlin 2019 – Part I
We’ve spent last weekend in Berlin at and around the 9th edition of the German Rum Festival, one of the by now most important Rum gatherings in the world. But before the festival kicked off on Saturday, me and a few fellow rum geeks received an invitation by Rum Artesanal (RA) to join their boat…
Diamond 2004 (Versailles)
This is a batch that has been released en masse lately. The very first release that I remember was the Whiskybroker 2004 12YO, where we already learned about the mark: “MDXC”. While I still don’t know what this is referring to, I am 99% sure that the last C indicated coloured, since we’ve got coloured…
Hampden – two pairs of LROK
LROK, Light Rum Owen Kelly, is a mark used by Hampden to denote the ester range of 200-400 g/hlaa, which make it a Wedderburn rum (at least). The mark is probably most well-known from the rums of the 2000 batch, which have been released by a whole bunch of different bottlers. I have reviewed some…
Cologne Spirits 2018 Part I
Last weekend we got to check out the Cologne Spirits, the most recent addition to the increasingly popular Rum fairs. Located in Germany’s most beautiful city, the general framework for a meeting with my rum buddies from all over the country was set. Or so we thought. Out of about 15 people, three have been…
3x Berry’s Finest Fijian Rum 2001
Today we have a small cross-tasting of three Fijians of Berry Bros & Rudd. All are bottled at 46%, should come from the same 2001 batch and differ from one another by one year of ageing. For more on Berry’s, click here. More on Fiji can be found in the previous reviews and here. Berry Bros & Rudd…
Single Cask Rum 