RUM JOURNAL
A JOURNEY TO MARTINIQUE By Alex Britell.
I take a sip of the Rhum Saint James and I am instantly in Martinique Therein lies the transportive power of rum, a, transcendent gift bequeathed to no other spirit in the world. There’s just something about rum, about Caribbean rum, about how it can take you away, even if for just a delightful, prolonged moment. There is of course a romantic quality about the rhum agricole of Martinique, about the dozen-odd distilleries that dot the French Caribbean island, some of just a few rums in the Caribbean that truly have a terroir. It’s something we’ve long said in these pages: when you try the agricole rums of the island you can truly taste Martinique
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And my one-way ticket to Martinique on this night was in revisiting an old standard: the Rhum Saint James Tres Vieux Millesime 2000, one picked up years ago at Aime Cesaire Airport.
But it’s still the essence of Rhum Saint James: fine, elevated, and, most importantly, endlessly elegant.
This, Saint James says, is the result of the brand’s first harvest in Martinique in the new millennium, aged in small casks. The 43-degree rum has a slightly dark amber color, with an aroma of butterscotch and cane stalk. It’s marked by flavors of caramel, marzipan, with a hint of pepper and spice and an edge of anise. It’s been years since I tried it, when I remembered it as something far smokier; now, uncorked for half a decade, it’s more mellow, rounder
With each sip Martinique whispers, taps, lightly plays at the senses. This glass of rum transports you to the waving canes and the volcanoes, the sands, the ti’ punch rituals of the late morning, the bakeries of Fort-deFrance, the banana fields on the eastern coast. In these uneasy times, there is great comfort to be found in a brief sugarcane-fueled vacation to the Caribbean Rum Journal Review 94 Points.
RUM JOURNAL By Alex Britell. In Puerto Rico, A History of a Little Barrel . He would carry it around in a small wooden barrel, rum in arm, giving tastes to his friends and those who wished to try it. Don Pedro Fernandez, a thirdgeneration sugarcane grower in Puerto Rico, had studied the art of brandy and cognac distillation in France and returned to the island with a copper pot still in 1871. Fernandez wished to impart in rum the finesse of French spirits, and in a few years Puerto Rico’s first rum was born on an island covered in sugarcane plantations.
. He called it “Ron del Barrilito,” or the “Rum of the Little Barrel,” branded with the story of those early rum sojourns. Ron del Barrilito “three star” quickly became very popular, until Prohibition came and Puerto Rico, being part of the United States, was soon a rumfree zone. The company shifted quickly its operations into a plant manufacturing alcohol for cosmetics and other purposes for a decade. But when the ban was lifted, the family quickly decided to return to rum. While the still didn’t revive, the rummaking tradition lived on, and Barrilito’s true art, that of barrel aging, became the focus of the company,
using bulk rum blended with a tiny hint of a secret blend of macerated fruits and spices, and on-site aging techniques, a technique that dates back to Don Pedro’s brandy days. The family then added a second expression, the Barrilito “two star,” a rum most at home in cocktails. Today, Barrilito remains the island’s oldest, most beloved rum, the one that Puerto Rico’s rum drinkers drink, the one that gets you an approving glance from the barman when you ask for it. It’s the quintessence of Puerto Rican rum, light and delicate, fine and balanced, the sherry aging adding just a whisper of sweetness to the rum’s edges.
And the three star remains the classic, a blend of rums between six and 10 years old, eminently drinkable and an institution in and of itself. But the history of Barrilito is still being written. The Hacienda Santa Ana, the historic home of Barrilito, about 20 minutes from San Juan, has been transformed, meaning you can visit the warehouse that’s home to the scores of ex-sherry barrels that shape the rum into Barrilito, watch the rummaking process, meet the master distiller (if he’s not in the lab) and get a feel for this centuries-old art form. The walk around the facility is a reminder of just how important the art of barrel aging really is, as the alchemy of time and lightly toasted wood turns the raw distillate into a jewel.
The rum is a blank canvas,” Barrilito’s Edgardo Sanchez says. “It’s our job to do the painting.” There’s also a spiffy new visitor center at the Hacienda, where you can learn about the history of the family, of Barrilito, and where you can sample cocktails and try the rums themselves. Hacienda Santa Ana is also the place to purchase the company’s new halo rum, the Barrilito Five Star, an ultra-rare blend of rums as old as 35 years. (Also on hand is a new Four-Star expression, with rums between 10 and 20 years old). For rum lovers, it’s a Puerto Rico must, but even for the uninitiated, visiting the Hacienda is a way to take a glance at the old Puerto Rico, a land where the sugarcane would wave and rum prophets would journey around with little barrels in their arms.
RUM JOURNAL BACARDI HAS A NEW RUM AND IT’S A MAJOR STEP FORWARD By Alex Britell For most people, rum is Bacardi. However you feel about the Puerto Rican rum brand, it’s what the average consumer thinks of when they think of rum - particularly in the United States, where Bacardi’s overwhelming — and often exclusive — ubiquity means few consumers ever even see other rum bottles at many restaurants and bars. Bacardi’s vast global influence has meant that it has long controlled the perception of rum — and what Bacardi does sends ripples throughout the industry. That’s why rum lovers long bemoaned the fact that, for years, the rum giant seldom put out any truly great rums. There was Bacardi 8, for many rum drinkers an entry point to the world of sipping rums, but never anything special. Things changed a bit half a decade ago when Bacardi released the smallproduction, ultra-premium Facundo line of rums, a series of expressions named after the founder of the company,
Don Facundo Bacardi Masso. (There was also the wonderful Casa Bacardi, a hard-to-find expression that has since disappeared since launching a few decades ago. ) Last year, Bacardi made a further push with the re-blended Bacardi 8 — and the Bacardi 10, a more drinkable, more interesting rum, the latter part of a broader new series that also includes the Bacardi Cuatro. But for rum lovers, Bacardi still has its work cut out. Even in its home country of Puerto Rico, brands like Don Q and Ron del Barrilito (the latter actually the oldest brand in Puerto Rico) put out some stellar, often superior expressions. That brings us to Bacardi’s newest rum, Bacardi Gran Reserva, or as we call, it Bacardi 16. This rum, which for now is sold only in Duty Free stores, effectively replaces the Bacardi Reserva Limitada, a rum that was for years the brand’s flagship. Bacardi says it’s aged for at least 16 years, although it’s almost certainly a blend.
On a recent jaunt to the Caribbean, we purchased a Bacardi 16 at Miami International Airport, exceptionally curious to see how Bacardi’s recent efforts to premiumize its own expressions had fared. And the results are, well, special. Bacardi 16 has a lovely, harmonious aroma of vanilla and carambola. The flavor profile is, happily, an extension of the aroma, with notes of carambola and spice - and then it gets really interesting. This is not the Bacardi you’re used to - new whispers emerge of notes like white pepper and even cane stalk - raw, visceral murmurs you don’t often find in a Bacardi. This is a journey, a concerto, a carriage ride through a cane field. It’s a difference in kind than the terrific but sometimes overly sweet Facundo range - and a new standard for Bacardi. Here’s hoping that it’s the beginning of a new era - and that Bacardi is this rum. Rum Journal Rating: 95 Points
RUM JOURNAL By Alex Britell.
THE ESSENCE OF ST CROIX Cruzan Single Barrel
But that’s also in part because we can take the broad offering of aged rums now available for granted. But that’s also in part because we can take the broad offering of aged rums now available for granted.
St Croix changes as you drive along its green curves, beaches giving way to lush hills and farmland and ocean cliffs. It’s an island that rewards those who dig deeper, whether you’re walking the old alleys of Christiansted or bowing your head through a branched tunnel to the golden sands of Shoys. It’s an island that begs rediscovery; each time you return you find new delights and formerly hidden wonders. It’s also an island of rum, home to Cruzan, one of the Caribbean’s truly venerable distilleries, a sugarcane symbol for the things that make this place wonderful. But we are in a time where the world of fine rum is in flux; one where many enthusiasts spend their time seeking out unnervingly highproof expressions and other rums that can be too far divorced from the very islands where they are made.
Before the current rum boom, though, choices of rums to sip were few and far between. There were the old regulars, Bacardi 8, early-days Zacapa, Barbancourt.. A decade or two ago, rum lovers, particularly those in the United States, could seldom find quality expressions for a regular sip. But there was also another rum that was always on the store shelf: Cruzan, both its Estate Diamond and single barrel bottlings, rum that was always fine and always true. In recent years, though, Cruzan’s aged expressions have sometimes gotten lost in the shadow of rum’s age of plenty. And that is quite a shame. But when you spend time on a rum-producing island you cannot help but spend some serious time with its expressions, and that’s exactly what happened this week on a trip to St Croix.
Whether at outposts like Rum and Wine or the new, lovely Breaker’s Roar tiki bar, it was Cruzan, neat, on the regular agenda, and it was consistently, wonderfully, satisfying, a thrilling reminder of what truly is one of the Caribbean’s essential rums (not to mention one of the great rum values, too). So what is it like? Cruzan Single Barrel, the company’s flagship expression, is a blend of multi-column rums of between five and 12 years aged in American white oak. There’s a tangy aroma of caramel and oak, with a playful flavor profile with notes of cane stalk, white pepper, spice, caramel, malt, a hint of vanilla and a rim of butterscotch. It’s the finish where things really deliver; all of the notes coalesce into perfect balance, smooth and honest with the slightest whisper of confectioner’s sugar. The body is on the lighter side, but there’s depth and elegance; the more you sip the more you understand, the more you discover. It’s rather like the island where it’s made. And isn’t that what a Caribbean rum should be? Rum Journal Review 94 Points