Ninefold Distillery Barrel Aged Pure Single Rum – Release #2. We are back in Bonny Scotland and back at Kit Carruthers’ distillery in Dumfries and Galloway. Which is situated just 15 miles from the from the English border. Although it is over the “other side” of the country to myself it might actually be my nearest rum distillery.

As the title outlines this is Ninefold’s second release of Barrel Aged Pure Single Rum. Well kind of, as they have also released an aged Charity Release for Nith Inshore Rescue.

The following information is taken direct from the Ninefold website. I’m sure you would rather read the article through rather than jump from one site to another. I’ve taken the pertinent details direct from the notes written by Kit.

“Our second single cask release, Edition #2 of the Experimental Cask series.

Following on from the 12 month old Edition #1 released in September 2020, Edition #2 has been bottled from barrel #5 at the distillery.

The rum itself was 100% distilled from scratch at Ninefold, and is a mix of experimental recipe development spirits distilled from sugar cane molasses in 2019. Cask #5 was a virgin American oak standard barrel (200 litres) that was partially filled in September 2019 (about 50 litres) with these rums. In March 2020, the feints from these experimental rums was redistilled and the resulting spirit used to top up barrel #5. In June 2021 the barrel was re-racked to four ex-Speyside whisky oloroso sherry octaves for finishing, and bottled in January 2022.”

Non-chill filtered, no added sugar or colouring. Naturally gluten-free & vegan friendly. Only 256 bottles available.

Each bottle is individually numbered and hand signed by the head distiller and owner, Dr. Kit Carruthers.”

The first 10 bottles of the rum are available priced at £85 and the remaning bottles numbers 11-256 cost £60. The website notes free shipping in the UK. Shipping outside of the UK can be discussed with Ninefold.

Presentation is in keeping with Ninefold’s other releases with the company log prominent once again. Information on the juice inside is provided on both the front and rear label. The bottle itself is contoured 3/4 “stubby” style bottle which I really like. The rum is sealed with a chunky cork stopper with the Ninefold logo and a wrap over label (there’s probably a proper term for these type of label/seals but I don’t know it!

Let me know if you do.

Anyway that is pretty much all the information required, so we may as well get on with the fun part. I’ve enjoyed Ninefold unaged and at 12 months so it will be interesting to see how this one goes down. I’m particularly interested to see how the ex-Speyside/Oloroso Sherry finish works and how much impact it has.

 

In the glass we have a gold/medium dark liquid. It looks as you might expect at this age.

On the nose, we are getting a lot of sweet caramel, toffee and a back note of aniseed or liquorice. It’s quite molasses-y but not completely dominating the nose.

The molasses notes are accompanied by a good weight of vanilla, raisin and a hint of blackcurrant. There is a hint of smoky oak but there isn’t a great deal of “spiciness” or obvious oak influence. It’s not at all woody. Probably not much of a surprise as it is still a relatively young rum being aged in a cold climate.

It’s a nice nose, pleasant and inviting but its perhaps not a million miles away from Ninefold’s Unaged White. It has much the same profile. Not a bad thing per se but it will be interesting to see how much the nose changes over time – in terms of older releases from Ninefold.

On nosing its difficult to remember that this rum has been bottled at 59.4% ABV. So the first sip is a little spicier than I expected.

It’s a pleasant surprise though as it shows more of oak ageing and the differing casks used. Quite woody – you can certainly taste the Virgin Oak on the initial sip. It’s a little herbal and there is lots of ginger and a kind of peppery woody note (??).

A few sips in and I’m getting more accustomed to the woody-ness which has calmed down a little. I’m also getting more of a feel for the rum as I feel it slip down and the mid palate comes in.

After the initial entry and the spicy/woody-ness the rum does quickly develop with more of the richer notes of toffee and raisin returning to the mix. There is a hint of soured cream and some more ginger and a touch of lime zest.

As we move towards the finish I begin to get some quite tannic notes of red wine and stewed prunes.

The finish isn’t particularly long but what is there is a nice mash up of what has preceded it. It fades out quite quickly.

Ninefold Distillery Barrel Aged Pure Single Rum – Release #2, is overall an intense and very flavourful rum. Perhaps, though lacking the complexity and maybe more so the refined nature of a longer matured rum.

That said it does still punch well above its weight.