Old Port Imported East Indian Rum hails from the Amrut Distillery in Kambipura, Bangalore, India.

The Indian rum market is huge (India is huge).  Until very recently Old Monk was the biggest selling dark rum in India.  In more recent times McDowells No1 Rum has replaced Old Monk at the top of the charts.  For one reason or another Old Port seems to be more appreciated amongst rum lovers outside of India, than in its home country.

The bottle of Old Port Rum I am reviewing is in an old style bottle.  The bottle is bell shaped and quite distinctive with a wide screw cap similar to Barbancourts.  The labelling is fairly cheap and has a very un-original Pirate Ship/Brigand on the cover.  This 70cl bottle cost me £19.99 and is bottled at 40% ABV.  More recent bottlings in the new style bottle are available online at prices ranging from £20 anywhere up to £30.

Whether the juice contained in the bottle has changed much over the past few years I would doubt.  Indian rum is often produced using some pretty suspect methodology.  It is questionable whether this is actually truly rum.  It is distilled from Sugar Cane but it is distilled to such levels that the distillate which remains is actually more ethanol than rum.  It is believed that flavours etc are then added to the “rum”.  This would explain the strange almost synthetic notes found with this and Old Monk Rum.

Amrut Distillery actually has a bit of a name in the whisky market and their whiskys get quite a lot of attention, even if they don’t aways get universal acclaim.

Anyway, back to the Rum.  Unfortunately I have no information on how old this rum is or anything else.  The information I obtained about the distillation was from someone who had visited the distillery.  If it is incorrect I will correct it if informed.

Nosing Old Port is a very sickly sweet experience.  It’s very strong and reminds me of Butterscotch.  Very sweet sugary caramel maybe Sticky Toffee Pudding sauce.  Whatever it is, its more cloying than inviting.  Very strong brown sugar notes.  Slightly artificial.

As a sipper Old Port is nowhere near as sweet as its nose.  It tastes very much of young alcohol.  It burns quite a lot and really isn’t very pleasant at all.  I really can’t think of much else to say about it as a sipper.  It just tastes of alcohol!

Mixed Old Port offers a better experience.  The sweet nose returns and a mixed cola drink works okay.  It’s nothing spectacular but its functional.  It’s sweet and sugary but has little else to it.  It is similar to Old Monk but lacks the extra depth.  Neither rums are classics but Old Monk has a little more going on.  Old Port is just a sweet mixer.

Uncomplicated, no sign of any oak ageing or time in the cask (its likely produced in steel vats).  It reminds me very much of Croatian Domaci Rum (Maraska for example).  It’s not the worst thing in the world to drink, but to review this as a rum is really pushing things.  It just doesn’t taste like a rum – a Spiced Rum maybe.

This is kind of okay as a weekend mixer but not as a serious rum.  As a rum being judged against other rums – its pretty poor.  My score must reflect how I judge this as a rum.

This reminds me of Travellers One Barrel and that is never a good thing!

1 star