Virgin Gorda 1493 Spanish Heritage Rum. Virgin Gorda is a rum brand from London. The rum is produced and distributed by The Poshmakers 

I have to confess prior to trying this rum I had not heard of The Poshmakers and their other brands (two gins and a vodka) aren’t familiar to me. Maybe they just haven’t reached us up here in the Frozen North.

Virgin Gorda has two variants of rum. This Spanish Heritage rum and a British Caribbean rum. Purely from memory of looking around the likes of Master of Malt and the Whisky Exchange I’m pretty sure the British Caribbean rum was released before this effort.

The Poshmakers own website only lists the British Caribbean rum – unfortunately there is no information to be found on their own website with regard this particular blend. In all honesty I’ve never heard anyone mention this rum nor have I really seen it promoted anywhere. I don’t even know if it is still being produced. Bearing all this in mind I suspect it perhaps isn’t.

However you can still pick up a bottle of this on The Whisky Exchange website. It is priced at £34.95 for a 70cl which comes bottled at 40% ABV. The bottle design is modern and contempory. I like the black bottle and the stylised silver writing on the bottle. The rum is closed with a synthetic plastic topped cork stopper. Presentation wise it says “Premium” rum.

The actual juice in the bottle of this Virgin Gorda 1493 Spanish Heritage Rum is a blend of rums from Barbados, Guatemala, Jamaica and Trinidad, matured for a minimum of five years in American white oak. I presume the Guatemalan element is where the Spanish Heritage part comes in as the others were long established British territories.

More significantly in terms of rum those islands produced rum in the “British style”. In simplistic terms these means produced on Pot/Column still from molasses. Spanish style is similar but made mostly solely with Column and Multi Column stills.

In the glass Virgin Gorda 1493 Spanish Heritage Rum is a very light golden brown to straw colour.

The nose is extremely light. It requires quite a deep nosing to get much from the nose. There is little going on beyond some light spices – a touch of vanilla and a little bit of a smoky oak but not a great deal.

It’s a light style of rum which reminds me very much of young Angostura rum – with perhaps a touch less “buttery-ness” on the nose. There’s nothing unpleasant on the nose but nothing to get excited about either. I’m starting to think Westerhall’s younger rums as well.

Sipping reveals a lightly spicy rum with notes of oak and some sweeter notes of vanilla and a touch of all spice and very mild ginger. It’s very easy-going and slips down easily enough. It does lack any real body though. It even feels a touch too diluted at 40%. Maybe an ABV of 46% might have given it a touch more bite. It certainly needs something. Anything really. Around 8 g/L of “additives” are noted in this rum. To be honest this quite surprised me as, to its credit it doesn’t taste at all dosed in anyway. That said it doesn’t really taste that much of anything really.

It’s smooth and easy to drink but it lakcs any real impact on the palate. It has a non-existant finish and the mid palate just reveals very light spices and a touch of oak. The initial entry gives hints of vanilla and walnut but little else beyond that. It perhaps has a slight perfumed note on the entry but it doesn’t last long at all.

Weak. Even by Spanish style rums which sometimes are bottled as low as 38% ABV as standard, this is “light” in profile. Almost to the point of being little more than slightly oaky tasting vodka.

I would say it was disappointing but as I didn’t really know much about it when I got it, I had no expectations.

Wasn’t worth the £35 though.