A few rums for our chums


July 3, 2022

A few rums for our chums

We're still trying to win the Worst Headline For Booze Ever competition, which, as expected, is chaired in San Francisco, CA. Please vote for us! Now the Worst Headline Of the World Award (WHOWA), chaired in London, UK, would be fine too.

Bellevue 24 yo 1998/2022 (54.4%, The Whisky Jury, Guadeloupe, refill barrel, cask #19, 237 bottles)

There's a wee flag with fleur-de-lis on the label, what's that, Quebec? Remember there's a Bellevue in Guadeloupe and a Bellevue on Marie-Galante, while Marie-Galante is administratively part of Guadeloupe. Did you get it all? Colour: deep gold. Nose: kerosene and olive oil, plus brake pad dust and dried mackerels, that's what I'm getting. Also black-olive focaccia. It's true that Bellevue can get pretty extreme. With water: stunning heady flowers, wisteria, jasmine, honeysuckle… Plus this feeling of having just opened the Kardashians' own family-pack of liquorice allsorts. Mouth (neat): totally grand Bellevue, full of menthol, liquorice, salt, rotting bananas, acetone and varnish. What does the people want? With water: more, much more salty liquorice, Scandinavian-style. Finish: very long, salty and full of liquorice, with some kind of smoke in the aftertaste. Juniper wood? Also blood oranges and pineapples. Comments: sure this wee Bellevue doesn't go in for subtleties, but should you be a member of the Liquorice Maniacs, you'll just need this bottle. Love it while frankly, those 24 years don't really feel. Hurray.
SGP:652 - 90 points.

Caroni 1999/2022 'Limbo' (63.7%, Jack Tar, Trinidad, cask #186, 217 bottles)

More heavy Caroni from those stashes that, according to their zealous promoters, should have gone extinct around the year 2015. Right, like Port Ellen or pink diamonds. Colour: greenish amber. Nose: bone-dry leather, tobacco, spent engine oil, porcinis and truffles, heating oil, fern and moss, lapsang souchong and just diesel oil. The very high strength may mask all the rest. With water: a Saturday afternoon at Ikea's, that's wonderful on the nose. Glues, woods, varnishes, aquavit and fatty meatballs. As long as we're avoiding anything even remotely linked to the band 'Abba', we're fine. Mouth (neat): high-power glue, ammonia, liquorice extracts and indeed diesel oil. Given the current prices for diesel oil, I think we'll start to refrain from quoting that too often. Wonderful varnishness here. With water: carbon, olives, peppers, liquorice and wood dusts. Finish: same, plus tar. Comments: watch your pipette, it doesn't utterly love water. Bring it down to 55, and basta cosi.
SGP:463 - 91 points.

Oh while we're at it…

Caroni 1997/2021 'La Lune' (61.3%, Jack Tar, Trinidad, cask #84, 225 bottles)

Yeah, I got it, this is part of a 'Cosmic Series'. As you may know unless you're in Missouri or Arkansas, la lune means the moon. Colour: amber. Nose: a much, much softer Caroni, with strawberries and nougat, then hay, soft asparagus, bamboo shoots and palm heart, and then just white toasts. Whiffs of soft paprika. This feels very high-columny. With water: good caney smells, some shoe polish, some fresh-sawn plywood. Mouth (neat): more action than on the nose, with big salty varnishes and various spicy chutneys. Paprika is back, together with a lot of nutmeg and cinnamon. A wee glue-y side too. With water: good juice, pineapple liqueur, some oak extracts… Finish: long. Comments: my mistake, my big mistake, I should have tried this La Lune before the flabbergasting Limbo. Coz order is everything, is it not. Order and beer, as they would say in Missouri or Arkansas.
SGP:551 - 87 points.

Foursquare 14 yo 2007/2021 (62.2%, Whisky Picnic Bar, Barbados, bourbon barrel, cask #75, 274 bottles)

There's some talking about added value that should remain in the countries of origin, and I'm all for it. The only thing is that zillions of European-aged a.k.a. early-landed ones are coming my way and in your glass, they usually just shine. Colour: full gold. Nose: wonderful rubber and maize bread, carbon, bicycle inner tube and slightly overburnt breads and pancakes. With water: some light heaviness, would I say. I know that's a strange concept. Mouth (neat): extremely good, sitting on the right side of the fence as always. Some light, almost weakish molecules plus some fatter, richer ones. Cane, banana, oils, lemons… With water: the pot-still rum doing its job. It's like Ardbeg or Lagavulin, you do not need much to come up with a palatable composition. Finish: medium, good, caney. Some marmalade. Comments: lovely. The lighter Caroni still beats it, but we're really close. Oh and Res, non always just Verba.
SGP:541 - 86 points.

Uitvlugt 30 yo 1990/2021 (55%, RumSponge, Guyana)

Indeed, there is a WhiskySponge, a CognacSponge, an ArmagnacSponge and a RumSponge. We hope there will be a MezcalSponge too, but we swear we'll quit if we ever spot a GinSponge. Now, a 30 years old Uitvlugt, that's got some style. No? Colour: bright gold. Nose: ooh this is tireless and pretty Port-Ellenish, in the sense that you would not find any signs of over-aging. Bright citrons, bright green olives, bright putties and paints, and bright salty and mentholy, quasi-diesely embrocations. Just wow. With water: more brines of all kinds. That's glo-ri-ous. Mouth (neat): some immense and intense, glorious, trumpeting saltiness. Extraordinary and worthy of a bespoke hymn by Georg-Friedrich Haendel or Henry Purcell. With water: massive, extremely assertive, almost dictatorial salty, briney, varnishy, ultra-dry and just totally coastal development. Finish: almost eternal, on salts, liquorices and olives. Pepper in the aftertaste. Comments: at 30 it is not complex, it's even a little simple or simplistic, but it is carved like a Damascus sword. I know what I'm trying to say. We-do-buy-if-we-can-find.
SGP:353 - 92 points.

Last one for the road, while we're in Guyana…

Versailles 16 yo 2005/2021 (50.8%, The Whisky Cask Company, Guyana, 156 bottles)

This was indeed distilled at Diamond Distillery, where the Versailles wooden still had been installed quite some years earlier. Some lovely writings about that at durhum.com, check them out. Colour: deep red amber. Nose: a gentler style after the Uitvlugt, with more cakes, more fudges and toffees, more shortbreads and more cappuccinos. With water: earths coming out, pinecones, charcoal, thyme bonbons… Do you know thyme bonbons or pastilles? Wee whiffs of salty vegetable soups. Mouth (neat): caramels and toffees, with a little pepper. No, rather a lot of pepper. With water: just super-extra good, with some salted vegetable soups and bouillons. But not sure many people are coming to rum because of those soupy flavours, to be honest, bananas and pineapples being pretty absent. Finish: medium, a little sweeter, more on 'Kräuter' sweets and liqueurs. Comments: great liquid, just forget about adding any waters, while thinking about 'Ricola Schweizer Kräuterzucker Kräuterbonbons'. Indeed, that's just one single thing.
SGP:561 - 85 points.

Check the index of all rums we've tasted so far