Morvenna White Rum. This rum is produced in Bude, Cornwall, England by the Cornish Distilling Co.

The Cornish Distilling Co. is a collaboration between husband and wife team – Richard and Fionagh Harding who run the Norton Barton Artisan Food Village and Tom Read.

Tom who has a PhD in biochemistry and a keen love of cocktails and spirits, alongside side a barista and lifeguard background! Tom is the Head Distiller and is in charge of the day to day production of the rum and gin which is produced at the Cornish Distilling Co. The distillery is located in the Food Village. Which in turn is part of the Harding’s small holding in Cornwall.

Morvenna White Rum has been around for a few years now. I remember tasting it at London Rum Fest in 2018 (it might have even been earlier). As a result it is one of the first UK rums to have been distilled as they say from “scratch”.

Morvenna White Rum is a molasses based Pot Still rum which is twice distilled before being diluted with Cornish Spring Water and then rested in stainless steel tanks.

Morvenna White Rum is available from a wide variety of retailers and you should expect to pay around £36 for a 70cl bottle. The rum is bottled at a respectable if not mind blowing 40% ABV. The rum is presented in a rounded 3/4 stubby bottle and the branding is clean and modern.

I sent a message to Tom Read to clarify a few points and he sent me back the following response. Please don’t ask me anything about this next bit as I am a self confessed distillation idiot! You could say in this respect I am the least geekiest of rum geeks. I just cannot retain this kind of information. At school Science bored me close to death!

“So I ferment with premium molasses and a couple yeast strains as a blend. (currently looking to switch yeast and have been running trials). I keep the ferment quite clean and it finishes after a few days I then let it sit for a few more days. Backset is occasionally used depending on what the ferment is destined for. The ferment usually reaches around 8% vol.

We use iStills here, I have a 100, 500 and 2000. It is the 2000 which is used for the rum production. The iStills have a needle valve which lets me control the level of reflux. It is left fully open for the stripping runs and then I tighten it up for the finishing run. Fully open will give me a hearts cut around 65% a smig open

in theory should give me 96% volume. I leave it a little more open and generally collect my hearts around 90% vol.

The hearts gives me a nice clean profile ideal for our range of spiced rums, I may open the valve up further for heavier style rums for barrel aging for example.

For Morvenna white batch 1 – 12, I used this high proof hearts cut. However, now I am reprocessing my tails from multiple runs and collecting this distillate also around 90%. This Queens Share is what is now making up the white rum. I just let it down with spring water slowly over time.”

So there you have it straight from the horses mouth so to speak.

In the glass the rum is unaged so its completely clear.

On the nose there is a little Jamaican funkyness. Some Pineapple and stewed Apples alongside a touch of Nail Varnish. Further nosing reveals a peppery note and some white “school” glue. There are notes of Vanilla that come in and out the more you nose.

The initial sip is a little fiery with a mild burn. It is initially sweet with notes of vanilla, citrus fruit and pineapple.

On the mid palate the sweeter notes begin to diminish. The flavour profile becomes more bitter and spicier. Their is a Dark almost bitter Toffee flavour and I get a hint of black coffee. Beneath this is a little fruitiness – apple and pears mingle nicely.

The finish is a reasonable length with more of the coffee notes and plenty of spice.

All in all it is so-so as sipper. It certainly has a lot more depth of flavour than most other White Rums. Especially those of the column still variety.

As a more “premium” mixer is what Morvenna White Rum is intended as and it makes a very nice, punchy rum and cola. It also works nicely with lemonade and make a more than decent Daiquiri.

It is not quite as punchy as some of the unaged white rum that is being produced North of the Border by the likes of J Gow, Ninefold and Islay Rum Company. Though Tom does have some higher ABV rum lined up in the future. It is however a country mile ahead of the likes of Bacardi and the numerous “light white” rums that are out there.