Rum Nation Rare Rums Savanna 2006/2016 10 Year Old. Reunion Island is perhaps not the first place on the map you will think of when the word rum is mentioned. Nor indeed is it when anything else is mentioned either.

Reunion Island or La Reunion is a French Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. To be honest it isn’t particularly famous for anything in particular.

However, its rum (or rhum) distillery Savanna is gaining a bit of a reputation amongst rum enthusiasts looking to cast their net beyond the usual rum locations. Like Fiji and Madeira – Reunion is growing a name quickly in enthusiast circles for very distinictive and at times very pungent or funky r(h)ums.

Fabio Rossi of Rum Nation has been quick to seize upon the growing popularity and this 10 year old rum from the Savanna Distillery is one of a number of rums to feature in the Rare Rums series.

Released in 2017 to the European market this rum has been tropically aged at Savanna for the full 10 years of its maturation. It has been drawn from cask number 674 which yielded 552 bottles. The cask used to age this rum is second fill cognac. It has been bottled at 54.2% ABV which I presume is Cask Strength. This is a rum produced in a “traditional” style from molasses. As it is produced on a French-speaking and French owned Island I will take a punt that distillation has taken place on a Creole Column Still.  A bottle would set you back around 65-70 Euros. None of the Rare Rums Series have been available directly to the UK market. Mainland Europe only.

Presentation wise you get a nice cylinder to store the stubby bottle in. Presentation has been dialled back a little in terms of colour scheme to give a more classic appearance than the usual Rum Nation bottles, which in themselves are quite understated. A synthetic cork stopper completes the look. Top marks go to Rum Nation information wise with these bottlings. It also appears that they have also resisted dosage with these rums.

Should you wish to learn more about the Savanna Distillery then please check out this post from Lance over at The Lone Caner.

So without further ado lets see how I found this particular effort.

In the glass we have a rum which presents itself as  dark brown with orange almost red flashes. Nosing reveals a very interesting intense almost sherried spirit. A very sweet nose of fortified wine and rich plump wine soaked raisins. Sherry trifle alongside some orange peel and herbal notes.

Sipped it is less sweet than the nose. Much less sweet. There is a lot of influence from the oak ageing – very citrusy tangy oak ageing with just a top note of cognac/brandy. It is quite an intense, very fruity rum. There is a lot going on it is very rich and clearly benefits from the tropical ageing. It has a good balance as well. Its quite deceptive and easy to sip on. It has commonality with the Foursquare 2013 – rich, sweet but with an underlying menace and undoubted rummy-ness.

Lots of stoned fruits and a good deal of citrus zest to make it very moreish. There is enough oak and spiciness. Slight nods toward medicinal, almost cough mixture like notes. A touch of refreshing “menthol” also flits in and out of the mix.

There is a touch of tobacco in the finish, which has a lot of spice and fruitness. All in all its very tasty and interesting. It’s different, quite tannic with notes of red wine but the bitternesss never quite develops – the sweeter notes keep it at bay.

The finish is long and rewarding with a lot of oak spice and some really nice notes of tobacco and a touch of petrol. This gives a very complex smokey linger which is matched by bursts of plum and a slight tartness of sour peaches. It’s quite a strange rum but one which you should persevere with. Complex and reasonably well-balanced with just an occasional flirtation with bitterness.

All in all a very interesting rum and one I am pleased to have spent time with. Expect to see more from the Reunion Island on this site going forward.