Compagnie des Indes – Barbados 16 Year Old
Compagnie des Indes are a French based Independent bottler. This Barbados offering is aged for 16 Years. The distillate hails from the acclaimed Foursquare Distillery in St Philip.
Compagnie des Indes (East India Company) is the brainchild of Florent Beuchet. Florent previously worked as the US Brand Ambassador for the Joseph Banks rum brand. You may be familiar with their 5 and 7 Island blends. They have also released some more expensive and very limited single cask rums.
The companies name and aim is to evoke memories of the 18th century. A time when sailors would travel far and wide, to bring back the best produce from far flung corners of the globe. In this instance the best rums in the world.
Unavailable presently in the UK this bottling came to my attention via Steven at Rum Diairies Blog. He insisted I had to try it. It is a 16 year old rum distilled in 1998 by Richard Seale at Foursquare. Aged for 7 years in Barbados and 9 years in the less tropical climbs of Amsterdam and then Liverpool. It was aged in ex-Jack Daniels barrels. It is a blend of pot and column distilled rum.
The rum is bottled at 45% ABV and comes with a price tag of around 90 euros (about £75 with the current exchange rate, maybe more post Brexit).
Compagnie des Indes rums all come in a very fetching stubby style bottle with cork stoppers and a standard logo and label. Beyond colour scheme changes it changes little, only to indicate the different rum contained within. A little back story is down the side of the bottle (in French). I like it when a company produces a uniform appearance for its rums and has a strong brand identity. I think its particularly important for Independent bottlers. The rum comes in a nice cut out carboard sleeve. All good stuff so far.
Compagnie des Indes have already put out an impressive run of rums in France. Despite only being around for a year or so. Sadly not so many have reached our shores but that seems to be improving.
There has been quite a lot of activity from Foursquare Distillery in their own right over the past 12 months. Despite that this rum is the first Foursquare offering I have had that is aged longer than 12 years. It will be interesting to see how the extra 4 years European ageing have impacted the rum.
The rum presents itself as a classic light to golden brown, shimmers of orange as you swirl the rum in the glass.
As a Bajan rum the nose offers few surprises – nicely balanced oak and vanilla notes with some residual fruity sweetness running through it. The nose is less oaked than Doorly’s 12 but much fruiter than RL Seales 10.
Sipping the rum initially doesn’t offer many surprises. Lovely aged woody notes are beautifully balanced alongside vanilla and some slightly spicy peppery notes. It’s quite a dry rum and it has a very long and very spicy finish.
Despite the drier profile and the spicier elements, as a sipper this has little alcohol burn. It’s not fiery and its all very nicely balanced – classic Foursquare. The aftertaste is very fresh and almost savoury.
There is no fancy finishing with this rum. From the information I have gathered it seems this has been aged solely in Bourbon casks. As a result it is a classic Bajan profile. The Bourbon/Tennessee Whiskey ageing has its usual influence on the distillate.
Although this is 16 Years Old it seems that the European Ageing has decelerated some of the Oak Ageing. The result is that the rum is very “fresh and clean” tasting. The char, sometimes evident when rum is “over oaked” has not occurred. I really like this rum even though when I’m breaking it down I’m making it sound pretty run of the mill!
I think it has got all the “good” aspects of Tropical and European ageing rolled into one wonderfully balanced, subtle yet complex, mellow sipping rum. It’s great and I really wish I could get some more!
It is getting very difficult to score all these Foursquare offerings as we are really dealing with such miniscule differences in quality! If you like Bajan rum then this will not disappoint.
If you can find it……..
Don Papa Rum Aged 10 Years. Alongside Bumbu, Don Papa have become the poster boys for adultered rum masquerading as premium. You could throw a few other rums into the mix, that use additives but Don Papa’s offerings are met with dismay and derision by most serious rum enthusiasts.
In the glass Don Papa Aged 10 Years is a very dark brown. Almost black. It’s a bit of a push to say a 10-year-old rum would be this dark even if it has been aged in Sugarlandia (I am not making that up it’s what they call it).
Fortunately because your taste buds have been assaulted in such a way you probably won’t even notice the finish. It’s very much a blink and you miss it kind of affair. A tiny hint of something sweet and woody – and its gone. All that is left on the palate is artificial bitterness.
Mezan Diamond Distillery Guyana 2007 PX Cask Finish. I’ve not been reviewing a great deal of Independent Bottlings of late. I’m not going to pretend I’m wearing some kind of halo and advocating Distillery Bottlings. Thing is though, with the likes of Foursquare, Worthy Park and Hampden Estate producing so many of their own bottlings over the past few years, I’ve found my buying habits pointing more in that direction.
rum was moved into an PX Sherry cask for the “finish” or secondary maturation. It was distilled in 2007 and bottled in 2019 and is noted as being aged 12 years. It was aged in Europe for 9 of these years. All this information is provided on the bottles rear label. As you can see.
There is so much going on with this rum, it’s difficult to describe everything that you will encounter. This drinks more like a Tropically Aged Demerara than a lot of other IB’s, I have had recently. This is a rich, fruity rum which shows just how rum really doesn’t need to be artificially sweetened. A secondary maturation or finish in a quality cask will give you all the sweetness you need.
Bacardi Anejo. Aside from the usual Bacardi bottles you find in the Supermarket and Duty Free a trip to the continent (and further a field) can often throw up a few more variations from the Puerto Rican rum powerhouses.
cheaper or inferior spirit.
oves onto some ginger and some light notes of pepper. The finish is next to non-existant as the ginger and pepper are overtaken by a slight bitter tobacco note which quickly fades away. All of this is running alongside some rough sweet alcohol which is delivering most if not all the flavour. A good sipper it is not.
Pusser’s “Nelson’s Blood” Aged 15 Years is their marquee expression. I think, (and I will get this all confirmed) that the rum is a different blend to the Blue Label. It is not just a more aged version of it. However, I also understand that despite this it is still a blend of Trini rum with a hefty dose of the famous Port Mourant wooden still distillate.
into the rum.
I would love to give a few tasting notes on the Pusser’s 15 but I’m finding that with each visit I’m finding something more. There are few rums which can exhibit so many different facets of the various rum styles but Pusser’s 15 is one of them. The only common trait in rum which I cannot really detect with this rum is oakiness. It has the sweetness of an El Dorado Demerara and the tread carefully” menace of a Caroni, it has deep fruity “funk” of a Jamaican. Okay I’ll give it shot…..
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…….
You get a really nice fruity burst – redcurrants and blackberries. Then the toffee notes arrive, they quickly fade into quite a sharp bittersweet melding of spices and smokiness. Despite its sweetness it is quite a heavy and very rich rum. Kind of like a mix of
Introduction
The Rum Flavour Map
Classification in Competition
I really hope we aren’t looking to enter a world where Single Blended rum is no longer seen as an exceptionallly high quality product. Moving further down the scheme of things even Modern Rum can be pretty damn tasty if we look to the likes of Don Q.
