Rum Reviews

Rum Review: Mount Gilboa (Barbados)

Details: Published: Sunday, 02 June 2013 12:38; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

Mount Gilboa is an interesting rum for many reasons, the most noticeable detail being the fact that the rum is triple distilled, more importantly a triple distilled pot still rum. As far as I know there are only a handful of rums in the world that are produced this way, at least many are not advertised as such. However, finding rums distilled more than once in column stills are far more common.

Master of Malt Releases (Double Bill)

Details: Published: Friday, 23 December 2011 10:33; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

Master of Malt recently participated in the increasingly popular Movember charity event by not only growing a handsome moustache, but by launching special edition bottlings including the Glenfarclas Movember 2011 bottling with £10 from the sale of each bottle donated to Movember.

The bottle is adorned with a still image of the Master of Malt team, recreated with the help of an old photograph from the Glenfarclas distillery.

Rum Review: Mount Gay Extra Old (Barbados)

Details: Published: Monday, 12 September 2011 00:39; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

The Mount Gay Estate is one of the oldest estates in the Caribbean, and definitely the oldest on Barbados. Many believe rum has been produced on the estate as early as 1663, which is the year William Sandiford bought the estate.

The estate included a still that was capable of producing rum, but the only legal and the oldest written evidence of rum production in the estate is from 1703, making Mount Gay the oldest rum producer in the world.

Rum Review: Maui Reserve Gold Rum (Maui)

Details: Published: Saturday, 25 September 2010 03:54; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

Maui Reserve Gold Rum is the last of the four Maui rums and it has been aged for over a year in American Oak Casks (Jim Beam) as it says on the black label in gold lettering.

There is also a smaller label near the bottom of the bottle that has hand written cask and bottle numbers and the signature of the Master Distiller and this is something I always appreciate to see in any spirits bottles.

Rum Review: Maui Dark Rum (Maui)

Details: Published: Friday, 17 September 2010 01:22; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

I first tried Maui Dark Rum at the UK RumFest 2008 at a tasting seminar by Paul Artrip and as I recall it had a plethora of rich aromas and flavours that I immediately wanted to experience again. I even managed to grab a bottle of the stuff for later tasting, cheers Paul!

This particular bottle spent a lot of time on the shelf before I decided to crack it open for this review.

Rum Review: Maui Gold Rum (Maui)

Details: Published: Thursday, 16 September 2010 05:03; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

All Maui Rums, as explained in the previous Maui rum review, begin with the same fermented molasses base distilled into high proof spirit, used in all Haleakala Distillers rum products and aged in Jim Beam barrels for less than a year with the exception of the Maui Gold Reserve rum.

Exactly how long each individual rum spends in the barrel is not revealed, nor are any other techniques that might have been used to create a slightly different kind of rum.

Rum Review: Maui Platinum Rum (Maui)

Details: Published: Sunday, 12 September 2010 07:00; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

Maui, the second largest island in Hawaii measuring 1883.5 square kilometres, has a variety of landscapes ranging from the arid volcanic terrain to lush jungles and has equally diverse climatic conditions.

Maui also happens to be the largest sugarcane producer in Hawaii, and of course we all know what that means – RUM!

Rum Review: Diplomático Reserve Blanco (Venezuela)

Details: Published: Friday, 23 October 2009 08:22; Written by Tatu Kaarlas

Diplomático Reserve Blanco is the latest addition to the Diplomático rum range, first introduced at the UK RumFest in 2008. It is a white rum, distilled 4 times in copper pot stills and aged for 6 years in white oak barrels before going through a five time carbon filtration to remove any trace of colour from the spirit.

Diplomático Rum Blanco comes in a simple yet refined, tall, thick bottomed bottle with pumpkin coloured labelling and text that advertise the rum as ”Ultra Premium Imported Rum" and "Ultra smooth and Slow Aged Rare Rums of the Caribbean."