Vidya The River Mumma. I’m pleased to present today the first Independent bottling from UK based importer/distributor Skylark Spirits. As you will learn from this review they have started things at the more daring end of the rum spectrum.
I think it was Rumfest 2018 that I first became aware of any aged rum from the New Yarmouth Distillery on Jamaica. I tried a Compagnie des Indes bottling and reviewed the higher ABV Denmark only release.
Hampden Estate The New York Edition. When you’re in Nuuuu Yooooorkk………Apologies I can’t say I’m a big fan of that song. It’s just got in my head. I’m more a “Moving to New York” by The Wombats kind of guy, all told but never mind. Shall we talk about rum instead of music? Anyone would think I was trying to be Serge from Whiskyfun. Yes, let’s talk rum.
Appleton Estate 1999 Hearts Collection. Earlier this month I was extremely fortunate (and humbled) to be one of 300 people, worldwide to be invited to a tasting of the Appleton Estate Hearts Collection.
The Hearts Collection is co-bottling between Luca Gargano of Velier and Joy Spence of Appleton Estate. They consist of three vintage rums from 1999, 1995 and 1994. These rums were hand picked and selected by Joy and Luca. Despite having a variety of vintages and barrels to choose from, they did both pick the same barrels as their favourites.
As a few readers may be aware, I am one of the Founders and Admins of The UK Rum Club which is a Facebook Group with around 2600 members. We focus on pure rums over spiced, flavoured or doctored products
Along with our first release due out in the next month or so which is a Chairman’s Reserve bottling in conjunction with Royal Mile Whiskies, we have recently announced a collaboration with S.B.S Single Barrel Selection
Appleton Estate 8 Reserve. Whenever a new bottle design is revealed in the rum world, it’s immediately met with suspicion of price increases and changes to the liquid. Downgrading of the liquid of course no rum gets better in time you must understand!
For once the conspiracists are right – well they are about the slight price increase and the change in the liquid. The blend in this is different to its predecessor. Quite whether the quality has increased or decreased, well I’ll come to that later in the review. First I’ll give you all the background I have on this particular release and the recent history of this “mid tier” Appleton Estate rum.
Clarendon 2007 Aged 12 Years Selected by Thompson Bros. These rather nicely presented bottlings of Independently bottled Caribbean rum, first came to my attention with another Jamaican rum. That rum was bottled exclusively for The Whisky Exchange and came from Worthy Park it was also 12 Years Old.
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Captain Morgan Black Label Jamaica Rum 73%. A high proof offering of Captain Morgan’s “iconic” Black Label rum which was bottled for the German market. Crikey that sounds like a bit of auction spiel doesn’t it?