Mount Gay Select Blend of Matured Rums TWE Exclusive. TWE stands for The Whisky Exchange. Which is a physical and online store based in London, England. Headed up by business man and spirits enthusiast Sukhinder Singh. I’m a regular customer with them as they have one of the best selections of rum available in the UK.

This is the first time Mount Gay have “outsourced” some of their rum beyond bulk rum sales. You  won’t have seen any independent bottlings with Mount Gay listed as the distillery.

The rum has been distilled and bottled at Mount Gay so it is presented in line with the brands usual offerings. However as mentioned you will only find this at the Whisky Exchange in the primary retail market. I would expect to see some appear in the future on the secondary/auction market.

Mount Gay Select Blend is a blend of Pot and Column distilled rums aged for 7 years. It is presented at Cask Strength of 54% ABV. 2400 bottles will be available and it retails at £87.95. It was aged in ex-American Oak Barrels. The blend has been selected by master distiller Allen Smith. It is drawn from just 20 barrels with a Angels Share of between 37.3% and 47.9%. Although we couldn’t get the exact details it has been noted that this blend contains more Pot Still rum than the rest of the Mount Gay range. No caramel colouring or chill filtration.

Mount Gay primarily make their money with their Eclipse and Black Barrel rums which have become staples of Travel Retail the world over. They are also noted for their iconic Mount Gay Extra Old (MGXO). They have released a few different expressions lately, including a Cask Strength version of the XO.

Presentation wise as it has been bottled at Mount Gay it is presented in their recently restyled bottles complete with a cork closure. It looks a very classy package. I am not sure if a card sleeve is provided.

Nevertheless it is very exciting to see a Cask Strength Mount Gay rum available at a more competitive price point. It will no doubt (and already has been) mentioned that this rum is more “expensive” than the Foursquare Exceptional Cask Series rums or even regular Foursquare rum. I suppose it is fairly expensive for a 7 year old rum but as I have found in the past Barbados Rum can be very good from a very young age. Especially when matured in Barbados.

So lets see how this compares to those releases.

In the glass Mount Gay Select Blend presents itself as a light golden brown with orange flashes.

The nose is a very familiar Bajan style rum. It has a lovely mixture of coconut, cashew nuts, pineapple and a touch of lemon zest. The balance on this nose is really spot on and it noses like a much older rum might.

The extra ABV for this over the XO is not really immediately noticeable from the nose. It’s so well-integrated. There are some spicy notes of oak ageing but it really does have such a great balance.

Further nosing reveals some toffee and banana. This is a rum which you will nose quite extensively it is so good.

Sipped Mount Gay Select Blend is wonderfully spicy. Very zesty with lots of bourbon esque sweet/sour notes. Zesty lemon/lime and some woody oak. The initial entry is quite fiery but further sips are much easier on the palate.

The mid palate is also quite spicy but notes of coconut, a touch of coffee, ginger, walnuts and some toffee also put in an appearance. It’s a complex, quite dry type of sipping rum similar in many respects to the Foursquare 2004 and 2005 rums. I like the zestyness and oakiness found in the profile.

The finish has perhaps a touch of bitterness which is the only thing which is slightly out of place with this rum. It is fleeting as well as the wonderful woody notes return giving you a very rich and warming finish. The finish is long and has a really nice note of dark chocolate mixed with ginger – bit like chocolate ginger stem biscuits. Nice!

This is a complex and very rewarding sipping rum. I wouldn’t even think about mixing this one. Fans of rums such as R L Seale’s, Mount Gay XO and the more recent Foursquare Exceptional Cask 2004 and 2005 rums will be in heaven with this one.

More of this please Mount Gay.