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Rob Whitehead has the distinctive pleasure of sourcing the world’s greatest spirits for us, and there’s one type he believes is woefully neglected: rum. From the wealthy and fruity to the refined and stylish, the world of rum is each bit as fascinating and assorted as whisky. Right here, he tells us why he loves rum a lot, and why you must too.
Being the Spirits Purchaser at Berry Bros. & Rudd is my immense pleasure and privilege. It means I get to work with among the best, most revered and best-loved distilleries on the earth. I don’t take that calmly.
Rum is the least explored of the actually nice spirits classes. A part of my position is about discovering new, smaller and lesser-known producers, alongside the superstars – giving them the love they deserve alongside our different great classes. The world of rum is stuffed with all types of producers, proper throughout the spectrum. There are distilleries which have been working for hundreds of years; others for mere months. There are distilleries working on actually epic scales of manufacturing, fermenting tens of millions of litres; and there are distilleries working out of sheds and transformed secure blocks, garages and farmhouses.
The rum distillery is the place the craft and work of the distiller is paramount. There are such a lot of unimaginable visionaries creating lovely merchandise tied to the land, maintaining as a lot of that terroir, that soul of the place – making an attempt to translate that from the native sugarcane as carefully as attainable into the completed drink. However there are additionally passionate makers producing positive rum 1000’s of miles away from the place it’s even attainable to develop sugarcane.
Neither is healthier or worse, neither is basically the one and proper approach to do issues. Each have the propensity to make actually world class spirits. The foundations surrounding rum manufacturing are usually pretty unfastened, and that permits for a beautiful mixture of strict conventional expressions and maverick experimentation proper throughout the globe. There may be nothing to cease anybody, wherever, shopping for some molasses and making rum – and that’s what makes all of it so thrilling.
Over my time working on this ever-blossoming business, I’ve discovered rum to be filled with fascinating and welcoming producers. All over the place I’m going, from Guyana to Stevenage, I’ve discovered dedicated, passionate individuals – eager to share their dwelling, their heritage, their concepts, their tales.
Rum may be as nice and as versatile as every other drink on the earth. Types vary from the unaged and spiced to actually positive, top-quality stuff on a par with the world’s most beautiful spirits. After almost 20 years of my time right here, the world of positive rum has very gently and slowly began opening up. Extra individuals yearly are doing distinctive work. There’s simply a lot to discover. I hope you’ll be a part of me on this journey.
Three favourites
Foursquare, 15-Yr-Outdated, Berry Bros. & Rudd Personal Cask Choice, Barbados
Richard Seale and his group are arguably among the greatest rum distillers on the earth. Richard has this extremely mysterious, mercurial genius with regards to choosing the casks to place collectively to create an exquisite bottle – and this 15-Yr-Outdated is simply impeccable. It’s rum at its most elegant, its most superbly coiffured and manicured. It’s pristinely made with clever manufacturing, however with actual love for the place and the molasses; actual care and a focus to what a Barbados rum ought to be. That is actually the work of a superb maker.
El Dorado, Berry Bros. & Rudd Unique Cask, 9-Yr-Outdated Rum, Guyana
Diamond Distillery is the one business distillery in Guyana. Right here, rums are made in a variety of kinds: some mild, others extremely dense and wealthy – with all the pieces in between. What’s attention-grabbing right here is that they’re, in contrast to some rum distilleries, creating rums on completely different stills, with completely different characters. Sean, Sharon and the group listed here are making unimaginable spirits with this vary of kinds. They then put them collectively and age them in cask, versus ageing every independently. This 9-Yr-Outdated is deep, darkish and filled with pruney, figgy, chocolatey notes. We have now macerated cherries. We have now sack a great deal of spice. We have now gooey, treacley toffee – stuff simply touchdown and sticking to the palate. It’s maddeningly advanced. Extraordinary distillation, lovely mixing.
Berry Bros. & Rudd Jamaica Rum
Jamaica has a repute amongst rum lovers for producing probably the most characterful and funky kinds of rum – very like Islay has amongst whisky-lovers. That is from Clarendon Property, who make high-ester, smoky, fascinating expressions. It has a traditional Jamaican character: overripe, virtually rotten, fruit; gooey, crushed-in-your-hand stone fruits; orchard and citrus fruits; charred, toasted spices. We have now thick cane molasses and treacle. It feels impure, removed from pristine. That is mucky stuff, however my gosh, it’s great.
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