Roaming Road Spirits Haiti Rum 19 Year

Introduction

Roaming Road Spirits are a relatively fresh face on the international scene, but the bloke pulling the strings, an American chap named Mike Gilmore, has been quietly building the foundation for this operation for nearly twenty years.

Mike’s background isn’t the typical corporate suit story. Back in 2007, looking for a bit of a gear change after a career in the Police, he took over a remote little bottle shop called Country Lane Liquor in Pinedale, Wyoming.

What was meant to be a quiet semi-retirement quickly spiralled into a full-blown obsession with single-barrel selections. He spent years driving up and down the Kentucky bourbon trail, hunting down exceptional casks.

By 2016, his palate was firmly proven when one of his private Four Roses picks took top honours at a major charity tasting. Almost overnight, his middle-of-nowhere Wyoming shop became a total pilgrimage site for whiskey geeks from all over the States, purely because folks knew they could trust his nose.

American whiskey eventually got incredibly crowded and a bit predictable. Rather than just rolling out more of the same to chase an easy dollar, Mike let his curiosity lead the way under a simple banner: “We Go Where the Spirit Takes Us.”

That meant packing a bag, building relationships across borders and diving headfirst into aged Rums, Armagnacs and Irish Whiskeys.

Roaming Road Spirits deal exclusively in Single cask, Cask Strength releases.

Lately, the outfit has been stretching its legs globally, setting up an international branch over in Dublin to finally funnel these curations into the UK and European markets.

Which brings us nicely to the bottle (well, okay samples) sitting on my desk today. A 19 Year-Old Haitian Cane Juice Rum. This was distilled from fresh sugar cane juice at the legendary Barbancourt distillery, before spending its entire life inside a single, once-used ex-bourbon barrel.

I do not know what the Tropical/Continental split is for the 19 years ageing and I am not going to guess. It’s fairly rare that we get Haitian rum at this age.

Indeed Barbancourt’s own 15 Year Old expression has been increasingly difficult to find here in the UK with sporadic listings on very few retailers sites. over the past few years.

At 55.2% ABV and hovering around the £92.50 mark via Master of Malt, it’s not a casual midweek supermarket purchase. For a genuine 19 Year Old Single Cask in today’s laughably inflated market, it’s actually exceptionally fair pricing.

Tasting

In the glass, the rum presents as a predictably deep, brooding amber. When a spirit has been locked away in a barrel since the mid-2000s, it is naturally going to pick up some serious color from the wood, and this looks suitably ancient. It has a beautiful, rich mahogany hue that genuinely invites you in, promising a heavily matured experience before you have even brought the glass up to your nose.

Moving onto the nose… well, if you were bracing yourself for a massive, aggressive hit of that signature raw Haitian funk, you can stand down immediately. The ex-bourbon cask has clearly been doing the absolute majority of the heavy lifting over the last two decades.

Instead of the cut grass, wet earth, and vegetal cane notes that you might usually associate with the island, you are greeted with massive, rolling waves of toasted brown sugar, heavy oak, and thick, sweet vanilla. It is remarkably approachable for a high-proof spirit.

Dig a little deeper into the glass, and there is a lovely touch of worn leather alongside a slightly savoury, almost dusty edge that stops the sweeter aromas from becoming cloying. It smells absolutely phenomenal, to be completely honest, but it is undeniably the barrel talking much louder than the original cane juice distillate.

The initial sip delivers a solid, warming thwack to the palate. It certainly lets you know it’s sitting at 55.2% ABV, but it is surprisingly well-mannered. It doesn’t rip your face off or immediately demand a splash of water to calm down the alcohol burn.

The oak dominates right out of the gate. It is dry, elegant, and totally uncompromising. You get an immediate sense of the sheer amount of time this has spent interacting with the charred inside of that ex-bourbon cask.

As the experience develops into the mid-palate, that heavy wood influence thankfully softens just enough to make way for a lovely wave of buttery vanilla and a touch of dry baking spice. There is some dark, stewed stone fruit action developing in the background, offering a subtle sweetness that cuts through the initial dryness.

The balance here is really quite impressive. It pulls you back from the edge of being overly woody just in the nick of time, showcasing a masterful level of cask management.

The finish lingers for a remarkably good while. It leaves a dry, warming trail of light caramel and fading oak that gently coats the throat. Eventually, it leaves the palate completely clean, dry, and immediately ready for another pour.

Verdict

This is a great rum, no two ways about it. Has nineteen years in an ex-bourbon barrel bullied the traditional Haitian character out of the spirit? Yeah, it probably has. The wood is absolutely the star of the show here, and the original Barbancour distillate has firmly taken a back seat to the maturation process.

If you are a die-hard purist looking for an explosive Agricole-style experience, you might find yourself a little disappointed by how well-behaved and bourbon-esque this has become.

When the wood influence is managed this well though, it is hard to sit here and complain. It might not scream “Haiti” at you from the moment you uncork it, but what Roaming Road has actually put in the bottle is a genuinely fantastic, mature spirit.

In all fairness Barbancourt has never been the most “Agricole” or “grassy” rum despite being produced from Cane Juice. It’s always been a far cry from those unaged Clairins.

Roaming Road Spirits Haiti Rum 19 Year is a nicely balanced, dangerously drinkable for the proof and a clear testament to Mike Gilmore knowing exactly when to pull a cask before it turns into liquid splinters. It is a really solid, well-executed release.

Final Thought: A rock-solid independent bottling that trades raw origin character for top-tier oak maturation. It is a great sip from start to finish and well worth your time and your money