Black Tot Master Blender’s Reserve Rum 2022. What better way to celebrate (do we celebrate the event – I suppose in the name of Health and Safety perhaps we do….) Black Tot Day than to take another walk down memory lane with Master Blender Oliver Chilton and his latest re-enactment of the traditional “British Style” Navy rum our islands fine sailors enjoyed up until 31st July 1970.
1968 Portsmouth White Rum. Over the past few years a number of Rum Producers have sprung up in the UK. I’ve focused quite a bit on some of the offerings from Scotland and its outer isles.
Today I am at the other end of the UK down in Sunny Hampshire at the Portsmouth Distillery. The distillery is situated in Fort Cumberland on the South Eastern corner of Portsea Island on the shingle spit known as Eastney Point. It was built to control the entrance to Langstone Harbour to the east, and to improve the defences of Portsmouth Dockyard to the west. It now houses the Portsmouth Distillery and visitor centre.
Distilia Chaconia 24 YO Distilled at Caroni Distillery. This bottling opens Distilia’s “Floral Rum Series”, which helps explain the presentation.
Distilia was set up by Spirits Afficionado’s Jakub Baginiski and Piotr Kossowski, initially they released long aged whisky from Karuizawa, Glenfarcas and Clynelish amongst others.
Foursquare Rum Distillery Elysium. Hurrah! For this release Foursquare are using their older label template which includes “Rum Distillery”. Despite the appearance this release is not the latest in the Exceptional Cask Series (ECS). It is in fact a Private Cask Selection release from The Whisky Exchange.
John Watling’s Single Barrel. The John Watling Distillery is based at the Buena Vista Estate in downtown Nassau on the Island of New Providence, which is part of the Bahamas. Despite being called a distillery the estate does not actually distill the rum on site.
Despite calling themselves a distillery, they are honest about the fact they import rum from other Caribbean islands/countries. Ageing, filtering and blending the rums under the guidance of their Master Blenders Guillermo Garcia-Lay and Pepin Argamasilla.
Jack Tar Alpha and Omega Triple Cask Enmore 1988-1990. For the first time I will be reviewing more than one bottling in a single review. However, I am not going down the route of many reviewers, who put several rum reviews into one article. Although this “batch” of rum comes in two different bottles – Alpha and Omega it is the same blend of 3 rums in each bottle.
Tanduay Gold Asian Rum. Thanks to the Bleeding Heart Rum Company and more specifically their Don Papa “rums”, the Philippines has become more well known globally as a rum producing nation.
However, Tanduay is (and has been for a number of years) one of the worlds best selling rums. Like so many of the best selling rums – the sales are largely limited to certain more localised markets. Much like Old Monk and McDowells in India, Tanduay can account for a lot of sales in their domestic market and in other Asian markets such as Hong Kong and China.