Rhum Neisson Extra Vieux
Rhum Neisson are a producer of Rhum Agricole from Martinique. The Extra Vieux is one of Neisson’s aged products. The company also produces a number of white rhums.
Rhum many rum producers they actually grow their own sugar cane on site. This is fairly common amongst Agricole producers due to the production methods required.
On the Neisson website they have a video which takes you right through the Rhum making process. Right from cutting of the Cane through to the bottling.
Neisson rhum is part of the AOC system. Which is as follows
Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC). The French equivalent to EU’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).
Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) is one of the geographical indications defined in European Union law to protect the names of regional foods. The law ensures that only products genuinely originating in that region are allowed in commerce as such. The purpose of the law is to protect the reputation of the regional foods and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which may be of inferior quality or of different flavour.
Neisson’s VO (or XO) rhum is bottled at 45% ABV. It is aged for 12-24 months initially in new French oak casks. It is then moved into used Bourbon barrels for maturation between 6 to 8 years. Neisson isn’t all that readily available in the UK and a bottle of this rhum will set you back around £60 for a 70cl bottle.
In the glass the rhum is a nice amber colour. The nose is quite light and nowhere near as grassy or vegetal as I have experienced in the past. The nose is quite fruity and pretty sweet. It’s not a big or an intense nose its quite gentle. It has an almost Bourbon like note to it in that it is slightly sweet/sour. It’s perhaps reminiscent a little of Barbancourt 5 star.
In the mouth the rhum is unmistakably a cane juice rhum but like Barbancourt it has a smoothness which is reminiscent of Cognac.
It is sweet and warming and has a brown sugar like sweetness to it. The sweet notes are also quite grape/wine like. There is a really nice oaked feel to this rhum. It is beautifully balanced along with the sweetness. The only bad point to make is that the taste of this rhum is quite short. You get a nice burst of sweet flavour along with the nice Bourbon oak notes. However, they quickly fade. The finish despite being initially more robust and spicy than I expected, doesn’t last too long. The finish is where you will notice the more familiar grassy/vegetal agricole notes.
Which I think are re-assuring – you’ve bought an Agricole rhum so I suppose you have a right to expect some of the “cane juice” to be evident in the mix.
It is easy to be put off Agricole Rhum. Like most things, say beer for example it can take a while for your palate to adjust to it and appreciate it. It is also worth noting that a well aged Agricole is very different to the younger white Agricoles which are so popular for mixing in Ti Punch etc.
This Neisson offers a much more refined and more complex experience. If you are only really familiar with molasses based rums then this may still seem a little odd but it is worth persisting with. There is a definite progression between this and some of the other younger Agricole rhums I have tried in the past.
Ron Cartavio XO is the top of the line for this Peruvian rum maker. It is now noted as being an 18 year old rum – it is no longer labelled as a Solera system rum. I reviewed their 12 “Year” Solera rum a while back and found it to be pretty average. Other than that my own experience of Peruvian rum has been with the frankly abominable Ron Millonario XO.
I’m not sure if it is quite as bad as the Milonario – but its very similar. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are one and the same to be honest.
Ron Santiago de Cuba Ron Extra Anejo 11 Anos. I use the exact naming convention adopted on the bottles I review, so apologies for the extra brevity of this reviews title. I guess much like me, these Cuban rum producers have a tendency to waffle…..
Tobacco, oak spices and leather become more prominent and bring a drier and smokier profile to the rum. Making it a much more complex and enjoyable sipper than the initial entry might suggest.
Dràm Mòr Single Cask Rum Foursquare Distillery Aged 13 Years. The success of the Foursquare Distillery is ongoing. Bottles in the Exceptional Cask Series are now being available only via a ballot at some of the bigger UK retailers. To be honest the very idea of a ballot, whereby you enter a raffle to actually spend your own money is pretty mind boggling in the rum world. However, it has been fairly common place for some time in the world of Scotch Whisky.
Dràm Mòr Single Cask Rum Foursquare Distillery Aged 13 Years is priced at £64.50 which in todays market I don’t think is bad at all. Refreshingly the rear label of the bottling also reveals more details about the ageing. So it has been aged for 8 years in an ex-bourbon barrel in Barbados and a further 5 years in an ex-Scotch Whisky cask in the UK.
Finish wise – it is perhaps a touch shorter but the improvement to the rest of the experience means I’m not so bothered about it. I’d thoroughly recommend anyone who buys this bottle does add a drop or two of water. It’s not always necessary or indeed beneficial but it really does work well with this bottling.
English Harbour Antigua Rum Port Cask Finish. English Harbour are a rum brand from Antigua, an island in the West Indies. They are pretty much famous for their signature English Harbour 5 Year Old and frankly not a lot else really.
I would say this has less coconut and vanilla than that rum and is every so slightly heavier on the Port on the nose. This is more “old” Port where Foursquare’s Port Cask Finish seemed a little “younger”. This is just a touch or two less vibrant. Less well defined.
Comparisons with the Foursquare Port Cask Finish will be inevitable. No, it is not as good as that in my opinion. That however does not mean this is not a very good rum in it’s own right.
S.B.S. – The 1423 Single Barrel Selection Mauritius 2008. 1423 have been releasing a varied selection of single cask rums over the past couple of years. They haven’t stuck rigidly to the likes of Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados.
am not all to familiar with how much this compares to their releases. All I do know is that this is a very tasty and complex column still rum which proves that it’s not all about the Pot Still. How much the Port Cask finish has lifted this rum I am not sure but it’s certainly added something to the rum.
Black Ven Distillery Dark Rum. There has been quite an explosion of rum production in the UK over the past 5 or so years. Many of these rum “producers” are doing little other than “spicing” an existing imported Caribbean rum base and then proclaiming it as British, English or Scottish or even Welsh “rum”.
weight of dark berries and acidic wine like notes to give it a more rounded flavour.
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