Plantation Xaymaca Special Dry. Unless you have only very recently gotten into rum or have been living in a cave, Plantation Rums should really need little or no introduction. Headed by Alexandre Gabriel Plantation Rum is a part of Maison Ferrand. They are based in France and a lot of their “double ageing” or secondary maturation takes place in cellars in the Cognac region of France.
Tag Archives: Rum
In February this year Alexandre Gabriel, owner of Maison Ferrand, the producers of Plantation rum gave an interview to David Driscoll of K&L Wine Merchants. A popular Wine and Spirits retailer based in the US.
Over the past few years, Alexandre and more specifically Plantation rum have been held up by many as the “poster boys” for adulterated rum. This is partly due to the fact that until very recently ALL their rums had what Alexandre refers to as “dosage”. The reality is, that whilst Plantation do add sugar (an aged sugar syrup), they don’t usually add the huge amounts favoured by some other “Premium” rum producers. Nor as far as I am aware, do they add things such as Glycerin or essences.
Weber Haus Cachaca Premium Black Aged 3 Years. Weber Haus are one of the largest and most celebrated Cachaça producers in Brasil. To date, they have over 100 national and international awards. Products from the H.Weber distillery are available in 19 countries.
One of the reasons I first began exploring Cachaça was due to a chance meeting with Leszek Wedzicha, who was working at Bristol Rum Festival last summer. Leszek was promoting the Weber Haus line up of Cachaça. I was very impressed. Prior to this I had not tried any aged Cachaça. I have stayed in contact with Leszek ever since. Earlier this year I attended the Manchester Cachaça festival and tried a great many more Cachaça’s. After speaking with Leszek and other Cachaça producers and enthusiasts I decided to begin exploring Cachaça more.
R.L Seale’s Old Brigand Barbados Rum. This rum was formerly known as Alleyne Arthur’s Old Brigand Barbados rum. The rum is quite a staple on the island. Though you will be quite fortunate to find it outside of Barbados. I’ve been fortunate enough that a few very generous friends have brought me back bottles from Barbados.
Ron Mulata de Cuba Anejo 7 Anos. Every Christmas discount supermarket Aldi get some “premum” rum in. In the past we have seen El Dorado 8 Year Old and their 15 Year Old, The Kraken and this year we got Pink Pigeon Spiced Rum from Mauritius and Ron Mulata de Cuba Anejo 7 Anos.
It’s quite an expensive business reviewing all this rum so I take any discounts I can get. When Aldi get rums in for Christmas time they usually come with a sizeable discount. Ron Mulata de Cuba isn’t as easily available in the UK as it is in mainland Europe (Spain and Germany in particular). The 7 year old usually retails at around the £25-30 mark. Aldi were selling it for £17.99.
Worthy Park Special Cask Release Oloroso. It was around 3 years ago I first tried Worthy Park’s “Rum Bar” range. A gold, white overproof and a Rum Cream. At the time I wanted more. I wanted to try some aged Worthy Park juice.
Due to the lack of, at the time “official” Worthy Park aged releases I found myself at the mercy of the Independent bottler. Fortunately I found some bottlings that were much better than the Bacardi Single Cane effort (which they “dosed”) from the likes of Bristol Classic Rum and Kill Devil to name but a few.
Plantation Haiti XO. A Single Cask bottling for the Mercury Bar. The Mercury Bar is a bar/restaurant in London W4 as far as I am aware anyway. It could be a number of other places all around the world. Until I’m told otherwise I’ll stick with the one in London.
Plantation Haiti XO is a rum from (I presume) Haitian distillery Barbancourt. It was aged for 8 years in the tropical climate of Hait in ex-bourbon casks. It was then transferred to France where it was aged for a further 3 years in White Pineau “Ferrand” casks. White Pineau is a French Fortified Wine.