Skotlander Handcrafted Rum V 1,400 SØMIL is perhaps the most bizarrely named rum I have reviewed so far. The strange name owes mostly to the way it has been aged. When translated into English and the story is told it does make a lot more sense. Even if the way the rum has been aged is a little baffling…….
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Elements
Eight Republica sees the UK based rum company move away from the island of St Lucia for the first time. Since launching in 2006 Elements Eight have focused on a range of rums solely from St Lucia Distillers. Following a re-launch and re-design of the rums range in 2016 Carl Stephenson, the founder of Elements Eight began thinking about releasing rums from other countries/regions.
Habitation Velier Foursquare 2013. No what other pairing in the rum world could you possibly think of that would be a virtual guarantee of a quality rum experience?
In amongst the sensation that was caused by the pairing of Velier and Foursquare with the 2006 release in 2016, where a number of bottlings released undeer the Habitation Velier moniker.
Some but maybe not all of you, will be familiar with Serge Valentin. Serge runs the extremely popular whisky website Whisky Fun. In recent years Serge has begun seeking out “Malternatives” often in the shape of rum.
Serge’s pocket sized reviews and commitment to the website mean that he publishes hundreds of notes every month. New reviews are published pretty much on a daily basis. Accurate, interesting tasting notes and an almost immediate assessment has ensured the sites popularity.
Rum Artesenal are a small Independent bottler from Germany. They have bottled a number of rums from various sources over the past couple of years.
Unfortunately due to the size of the operation and the language barrier, I have been unable to find any other information on them.
Their rums are available in Germany, Denmark and other parts of mainland Europe. I have not seen any bottlings from them in the UK.
Diplomatico (or Botucal in Germany) Mantuano – meaning nobleman and also a cocoa producing town in Venezeula. Which is where Diplomatico rums are produced.
Diplomatico Mantuano was showcased at the London Rumfest in October 2016. It is a direct replacement for the companies Reserva rum. It has retained the orange parts of that rums colour scheme and the ornate rounded stubby bottle. I always feel these bottles look smaller than most 70cl bottles. Clearly this is an optical illusion as they hold the same amount of liquor.
Duncan 
Taylor are an Independent bottler of whisky and rum from Scotland. This is a Uitvlugt Demerara rum. Uitvlugt is the name of a now defunct distillery. Some of the stills from this distillery are now housed at Demerara Distillers Limited or the Diamond Distillery if you prefer.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine the exact origin of all the Independently bottled Demerara/Guyana rums. Not only are bottlers using non-standard terms. Some are using the old Distillery names, some the stills and others are just stating Diamond Distillery. There is also an issue with where the stills on which these rums were at the time of bottling. This is particularly confusing the older the rums are.