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“Four hours of top rums at the trade session of The Rum Show 2023.”
A slightly belated look back!

As the summer/autumn rum festival season
is fast approaching, what better time than now,
to look back at last summer’s
The Rum Show c/o #TheWhiskyExchange.

It has been a while since my last post!
Sorry, other things often get in the way of writing about rum.
I will be putting this right going forwards!

But, as the main events of the year are on their way (Imbibe and The Rum Show in July with Rumfest in October), now is a great time to have a look back at one of my rum highlights of last year – The Rum Show 2023 (c/o The Whisky Exchange). So, here is my account of the trade day in 2023.

A relatively late start to the day came in the form of a 1h 10m train journey from my Bedfordshire home directly to London Bridge station, a five minute amble away from Glaziers Hall, the venue for The Rum Show 2023 (TRS), c/o The Whisky Exchange.

The official promo listed over 200 different rums to try, which with an official window of just three and a half hours, would inevitably mean, missing out on several, or indeed many fine rums. With some of the well-established brands from the world of rum in the form of Appleton, Havana Club, Flor de Caña, El Dorado and Pusser’s in attendance, I decided to remove those from my potential tastings rather than going over old, well-trodden ground. That said, Havana Club were launching a new rum at TRS, but as I am not a big Cuban rum fan, time did not permit a visit to Castro-Land. For those that are interested, have a look at TWE Havana Club 11 Year Old Small Batch Rum, which is presented at 50%.

As is often the case with rum shows and events, it is the independent bottlers and the smaller brands that have interesting portfolios and that often includes some stonking under-the-table tots. Cue the ever-present and reliable Bristol Classic Rums, who must have slipped the organisers a few quid extra to have their stand featured right by the entrance encouraging tastings on the way in and out of the ground floor tasting room. John and Simon are full of passion and knowledge about their rums. The Fiji and Venezuelan rums caught my eye – both of which are at opposite ends of the tasting spectrum but both delicious. The Fiji rum from a column still had a good warming mouthfeel with almonds, tropical fruits and plenty of spicy pepper. The contrast was the Venezuela bottling from Destileria Sofa (Santa Teresa), which was sweeter with caramelised dried fruit notes along with an astringent dry finish leading to something reminiscent of Maraschino cherries steeped in Oloroso Sherry. The highlight was undoubtedly a sneaky tasting of a fantastic unreleased 56% Jamaican rum from Hampden. Hopefully, John at Bristol will consider bottling at this [higher-than-usual-for Bristol-Rums] ABV.

Tamosi is one of my favourite Indie brands. Always offering fine quality natural rums that focus on the quality of barrels selected to accurately reflect each distillery that is presented. The First Edition of their “Original Blended Rum” at 46% is an excellent offering. Their 17yo from Venezuela was my favourite but I also had a taste of a 31 Enmore “KFM” (Haubariria) distilled way back in 1991 on the historic wooden Versailles still. The rum retails at £360 and is 52.6%. It is very punchy, with notes that are almost tar-like, accompanied with leather and tropical fruits.

The ever-present Peter Holland, represented Foursquare and offered us a lovely tasting of the [at the time] current Exceptional Cask Selection bottling “Touchstone”. This 14 year old Single Blended rum is 61% and aged in ex-Cognac and ex-Bourbon barrels. This lead nicely into an informative talk by distillery Master Blender Richard Seale – surely one of the most important proponents of making real, proper rum, that you could ever meet. He gave a very informative talk, focusing on the history of Barbados rum and its use of both sugar cane juice and molasses in rum production. He finished with a sublime tasting of the Foursquare-Velier collaboration “Raconteur” – a superb 61% rum, distilled 2006. It has had 17 years of fully-tropical ageing in a combination of ex-Bourbon casks and ex-Oloroso Sherry barrels. It is limited to 4,800 bottles – expect to pay way over the odds on the secondary market if you wish to acquire a bottle. I have just purchased one from the European market and have yet to see one officially for sale in the UK.

Looking forward to trying ECS XXV “Equipoise” and maybe even some of ECS XXVI “Magisterium” or the next Velier-Foursquare collaboration “Absolutio” at the 2024 show.

Black Tot were also in attendance promoting their fine rum blends including the 2023 Master Blenders Reserve. This annual edition is released on July 31st each year (Black Tot Day) and is a blend of various Caribbean rums of different ages. The 2023 blend features rums from Guyana (31.5%), Barbados (18.3%), Jamaica (9%), Trinidad (19%) and for the first time, Grenada (2.7%). In addition 19.5% is from their “Perpetual Blend” comprising the 2022 edition and some original Royal Navy rum. It is 54.% ABV and retails at £145. Hopefully, they will have their 2024 blend at this year’s event.

A new brand [for me] is Renegade Rum, hailing from the spice island, Grenada, and aiming to showcase the terroir and even the Pagos, of the different regions and soil-types in Grenada. The rums are still young and very fresh and funky at the moment, but I think this will be a brand to look out for in the future as their greater-aged expressions come online. The Whisky Exchange have their current range of rums available to purchase.

One of my favourite brands producing lighter, Latin-style, but unadulterated rums is Don Q. Their core range has had a re-branding and they have a new edition – Don Q Reserva 7 Year Old. For me, the most exciting offerings were their cask finish range featuring rums with additional ageing in ex-Port and ex-Zinfandel casks (three additional years in ex-Tawny casks and ex-Californian red wine casks respectively), both at 40%. The highlight (for me), an ex-Cognac finish at 49.6% (two additional years in ex-Cognac casks). The higher ABV makes a significant difference.

As I said at the start, a 3 1/2 hour window of tasting was never going to be enough and I missed out on a few tastings – Holmes Cay, St. Nicholas Abbey and Worthy Park for example. Oh well…..next time!

Here is a link to all of my hydrometer tests:
RumShopBoy Hydrometer Tests

Links / Notes:

Review No: 181

Why are rums marked out of 100? Click HERE to read about how I mark a rum.

*
P Denotes the rum contains POT still distillate.
C Denotes the rum contains traditional/Coffey COLUMN still distillate.
B Denotes the rum contains a BLEND of POT and COLUMN still distillate.
M Denotes the rum contains MULTI-COLUMN still distillate or is a MODERN rum.
A Denotes the rum is an AGRICOLE i.e. from Cane Juice.
S Denotes the rum is presented in a SWEETENED style.

Single Blended Rum: A blend of pot still and traditional column still from a single distillery.
Pure Single Rum: 100% Pot Still from a single distillery
Pure Single Agricole Rum: 100% Pot Still from cane juice
Single Blended Rum – A blend of pot still and traditional column still from a single distillery.
Traditional Rum: From a traditional column still.
Modern Rum: From a modern multi column still.