6 Rums You’ll Probably Never Taste Again
A line of grumbling Tales attendees were let into the 6 Rums You’ll Probably Never Taste Again seminar late. Our speaker, Ed Hamilton, was quick to apologize. “One of the rums just arrived.” he explained. The last rum had to be hand carried, as the previous shipment was mostly broken.
The grumbling ceased.
A man who can get bottles of rum hand carried from the distiller is special indeed. Ed Hamilton, as you might be aware, is the creator of the Ministry of Rum website. With a steady voice and long grey hair, he walked us through how he ended up as one of the (if not THE) premier experts on rum. He sailed the Caribbean for almost 20 years, and cultivated friendships with distillers every chance he got. Now he is an importer and a man thoughtfully bringing information to a country that until recently had ignored rum as the lesser cousin of other spirits.
The named of the conference was not misleading. Indeed, we were tasted on 6 rums that are not available for sale, and will never (except in this case) reach American shores. No labels and no barcodes, the one exception being the Abuelo. But as there were only 3600 bottles, priced at $135 a pop, the chances are nearly zero. Each rum was either a family or distillers reserve, never available to the public, and some had been aged for 30 years. To say one would feel exceptionally lucky to be in the audience is an understatement.
The rums hailed all over the Caribbean, save the lone domestic from Prichards in Tennessee (which might have been our favorite). Their rum was a 12-year, aged in new barrels from a cooperage in Arkansas, and tasted of roasted nuts and vanilla, with a slightly fruity finish. Really lovely. We will be watching the shelf for this brand for certain.
Flor de Cana of Nicaragua and Abuelo (website under construction at time of this posting) from Panama were names we did recognize, and each had provided rums aged over 20 years. Flor de Cana has the luxury of owning all the sugar cane, the mill, and distillery for their operation, and boasts using Grade A molasses. While the rum was woodier than we generally prefer, it was still a tasty treat to try.
It turns out Botran from Guatemala has an interesting method of recycling that involves the capture and re-use (read: re-selling) of carbon dioxide, which is a by-product of producing alcohol. The method by which they made the rum we tried was also interesting: they use three different types of barrels to age the rum, all of different ages (up to 30 years), then blend them together for a complex, slightly sweet result. Delicious. (For those of you not familiar with Botran, they are the producers of Zacapa. Shhhh, we didn’t tell you that.)
Santa Teresa is made in the first licensed distillery in Venezuela. We found it fascinating that in this distillery you would find an Austrian process still, with a 5 day closed fermentation. How did that process end up in South America? We were never privy to that, but we can say the resulting 12-year old rum was a lovely blend, with a delicate balance and lighter color than almost any aged rum we have ever seen.
The only rhum agricole of the bunch was the Neisson from Martinique. Not to take anything away from this rum, it deserved to be a part of this bunch, but Rhum Agricoles are not our favorite. This one was a single barrel 18 year old, had more of an almond flavor and an almost vegetal finish. Complex, and for those who are fond of agricoles we imagine quite heavenly. If you are interested in the subject of rum, we highly recommend seeing Ed Hamilton speak. He might not have a 30 year old family reserve for you to try, but it’s impossible not fall a little more in love with rum when he speaks about it. To find him, or just to learn more, check out www.ministryofrum.com.
