Intro
What a crazy year, who could have foreseen that everything would change in an instant and the way our rum people would have to be very innovative to still have the possibility to drink some rum together apart from each other. This year the focus has been a little bit more on the pleasure of drinking rum and not listening to the sirens form the rum police that’s slowly coming closer and ready to tell you what is right and what is wrong in the rum world. I sincerely hope that this will continue in 2021 but lets us see what the future will bring?
If I can summon up my 2020 in a few words, which will be an understatement, because I am actually quite bad at it, new friendships have emerged, where the keyword is sharing good rum. I have new Italian and French connections and found out, that some are in the rum world just for the bottle flipping of it and I would highly recommend those guys buying a flipper machine instead. Let us get back to, what this is all about, rum. One of the most interesting things in the Danish rum world in 2020 was the new independent bottler Nobilis Rum, which consist of 5 great guys who started off with their own little rum club and now on the verge of kicking down some rum doors in 2021, so watch out. The philosophy behind the brand is that they want to bottle extraordinary casks, very old casks, to be the first to bottle something unique. They won’t bottle anything, they haven’t tasted and approved. Their first bottle was Enmore 1988 mrk”MEC” with a abv: 49,1%. Well lets get back to what it is all about review of some great rum of 2020:
The bottles are placed in random order.
Wild Parrot Enmore 1994 mrk”REV”, abv 52,1%:
First bottle on the list is from duo Stefano Cremaschi and Andrea Ferrari under the label Wild Parrot. I have followed this label from the very first bottle, which was a hampden from 1998 and bottled in 2017. The nose just gives me a feeling that I want to hug this bottle and never let it go. It gives me all the way to my rum heart and that heart begins beat Guyana rhythm and I said to myself let the music play on. The first notes that I get in my nose is a combination of nutmeg, all spice and then something amazing happens with a lightness coming along after a few minutes, where the feeling og a palate of exotic fruits, where dragon fruit, pineapple cherries and sunkissed mangos. At last the licorice comes crawling like a black panther ready to jump it´s pray and then the mint is there but not that clearly.
The first sip is perfection or to put it a little bit more mildly a young ballet dancer ready to give a performance of a lifetime with licorice as the theme, first off the first step gives me the feeling of salty licorice, the next one is sweet licorice with a touch of mint and last but not least licorice root and some wood and vanilla to round it off. After a while more in the mouth the notes of olive oil, redberries. The finish gives away a lot of menthol, caramel and red grapefruit. This bottle has everything to offer that you could expect from an Enmore
Tamosi Karaya Port Mourant 1998, 22 year old, abv: 61,1%:
The second bottle is from a independent bottler from the Netherlands Benjamin Boothe. A very good friend of my introduced me and what a bottle. The man behind the bottle is born in the UK and have lived in the Netherlands for the past 10 years with a mother from Guyana and a dad from Jamaica, he has rum running in his veins. Actually, part of his family was distillers at Blairmont and Albion. The brand wants to introduce people to a side of Caribbean history and culture that gets very little air time but is incredibly important, its pre-colonial and amerindian history. Benjamin Boothe figured, the best way to do that, was through indigenous storytelling, as these are stories that survived many generations and were used to pass down important information about culture, society and environment. Every bottle features a story from indigenous Caribbean history.
Back to the rum, the first notes that comes to my mind are fresh juicy pears, a wet pencil and some red peppercorn to round it off. I am right there in the middle of a Chinese farmers market, where my nose gets bombarded with impressions, on one hand there is lemongrass, baby aubergine and spring onion.
The first sip gives mere a sudden feeling of taking sip number two right away and there it is the pencil eraser walking all over my tongue, the alcohol gives this nice tickle with a touch of sea salt and white pepper, but where is the Cote de boeuf? After a while in the mouth I get cumin, cardamom and dried ginger. The aftertaste stays in the mouth for very long. The best advice from me is get a bottle, while it is still available.
SBS Martinique 2019, 1 year old with PX sherry finish, abv: 53%:
This is the youngster of the three based on molasses. The distillery is Distillerie Le Galion and not that known in most parts of the rum Community, but hopefully that is about to change, because here is something very unique in my humble opinion. It is the only distillery on Martinique that still distilling from molasses and up til 30% of there rum is Grand Arome, which means its ester count is at least 500.
As my nose slowly comes closer to the glass I am starting to fade away in a dream state on a bounty beach with All saint singing in the background Pure Shores and I feel that I am taking in The movie The Beach. I am lying there on my sunbed and first up my nose sense smashed cranberries, blackcurrant and overrips peaches not bad, not bad at all is my first thought that, but as I dive a little bit deeper into the rum the prunes and raisins takes over in my nose and the smell of sweet tabacco in the end. I put my sunbed in upright position and now to the tasting itself. The first sip is an explosion on my tongue going in many directions but fast I start make some sense of all the tasting notes that comes to my mind. Burnt brown sugar, a box of very fine cigars and even though it is young the alcohol is very well integrated. The sense wood and Charcoal nut is the perfect finish for my dream to finish and get back to reality, but I will soon visit my bounty beach again as I take another sip of this fine rum.
