Skotlander White Rum. Skotlander hail from Denmark. This white rum is along with their dark rum their “standard” rum offering.

The company was founded by the Dane Anders Skotlander. Skotlander rums are distilled, aged and bottled in Denmark (and occasionally aged at sea). Anders has spent the last 10 or so years working as a film producer. Denmark actually has quite a few recognised rum enthusiasts such as Ingvar Thomsen, Johnny Drejer (of Hydrometer test fame) and Mads Heitmann of Romhatten and the author of Rom Bogen (a book about rum in Danish).

The rum scene in Denmark seems to be thriving with a number of rum bars and clubs opening up.  Independent bottler Compagnie des Indes releases “Danish” only Cask Strength efforts so the market is clearly keen for new and limited expressions.  In addition to Skotlander, Denmark also has another rum bottler in the shape of Daniel Nunez Bascunan of EKTE spirits.  They take a slightly different approach to Skotlander in that they blend and bottle rums from other Caribbean islands rather than distilling their own rum. Nevertheless these efforts have been well received thus far.

Skotlander Spirits Rum is produced using molasses sourced from Brazil and distilled at the Nordisk Destilleri in Northern Denmark using a handmade Muller Copper Still. The still was sourced from the Black Forest in Germany.  As a result the rum is created in batches. The bottle I’m reviewing today is from batch number 2.  It is bottle number 524 of 2000.  It is 100% Pot Still rum and is bottled at 40% ABV. As far as I am aware this rum has not been aged. The bottle size is 50cl (half a litre) and a bottle will set you back 399 Danish Kroner – according to Google this returns as £47.27 or €53.60.

So it isn’t cheap.  The bottle is a stubby, slightly angular affair with a synthetic plastic topped cork stopper.  It’s sleek and very modern looking.  The appearance of their rums runs right through their range.  Perhaps a few more colours could be used to distiniguish some of their limited editions from each other.  It can be a little confusing at times. That said the presentation is spot on and very modern.

In the glass Skotlander White is a completely clear distillate.

The nose isn’t as punchy as I thought it might be. It’s quite muted in some respects. It doesn’t jump out at you as I was expecting. I was expecting full on Pot Still insanity.

Having said that what is there is on the nose is very pleasant. Notes of vanilla, some spicy white pepper and a hint of mixed berries. It’s fresh and quite fruity but it takes quite a lot of nosing to get all the notes.

Sipped Skotlander White is quite fiery – there is a lot of white pepper and a nice burn of alcohol which I always enjoy with my spirits. It’s clean and fresh but again it does feel just a touch muted.

With a little more time on the palate it does show a few fruity notes – a little banana, some cherry and some coconut. There is a hint of aniseed in the finish and the mid palate.

The finish is quite long and satisfying. Nice notes of licorice again and a reasonable amount of “booze”.

Mixed as you would expect of white rum it does quite well. It’s not an overpowering white rum so it rubs along nicely alongside most mixers such as cola, ginger beer and lemonade. It adds a nice sweetness of stoned fruits and berries.

I’ve been tasting at a lot of white rums recently. This one I would say is definitely above average. At its price point though, there is a lot of competition. It is quite a refined yet still fairly fiery white but (and I don’t often say this) I do feel it would have benefitted from a higher ABV.

A touch more beef to this one, would have been really interesting to try. Skotlander have a number of other rums in their portfolio so I will be having another look on their site soon. There is a limited edition white which is catching my eye.

It’s an interesting time for rum and people are increasingly looking for variety and something a bit different. It’s certainly a massive improvement on A.H Riise that’s for sure. There are no additives to be found in this rum.

At 50% ABV this one really might be even better….