Tag: Plantation

Review: Plantation Single Barrel Multi-Island XO

Review: Plantation Single Barrel Multi-Island XO

This is another of the new Plantation single-cask offerings. The Plantation web page on this has a lot of information. A blend of both column and pot-still Jamaica and Barbados distilates, then aged in three different barrel types, oak (tropics), Ferrand (continental), and a year in Côteaux du Layon wine casks, bottled at 46.5% ABV. There is much more there as well.. Of course they find much more in the flavor profile than I, but this is still pretty rich and tropical. Indeed, I can taste the tropics in this one. The sort of rum I picture drinking with a little ice (I usually drink neat) at a pool-side bar somewhere, really anywhere, in the Caribbean!

Color: Pale yellow amber with flashes of yellow and a little red.

Legs: Thin, fast legs drop from the bottom of the swirl line.

Aroma: I get vanilla, fruity notes of apricot, banana, some pine apple, nutmeg, and coconut. There is also a little alcohol on the nose. The over-all effect is very rich, and melds later into a deep caramel.

Flavor: Very clean medium creamy body.  A light touch of raw sugar and sweet light fruit, delicate with some fire on a long sugar-sweet aftertaste. The flavors include some raisin, light caramel, and a hint of tobacco too, all very delicately dancing on fruits like apricot, grape, pineapple, and apple. Despite the Jamaican heritage here I don’t detect any funk. The Plantation site linked above gives even the ester content, 176 g/hL, that’s grams per hundred liters, so very low. Very high ester rums can have 1000 g/hl or more. No surprise I don’t sense any funk, but even this low ester content certainly adds to the depth of both aroma and flavor.

So far I have liked every one of these Plantation offerings. The collection can be seen here, and this link will take you to a few comments about the Multi Island on Rum Ratings.

 

Review: Plantation Single Cask Guyana 2008 Rum

Review: Plantation Single Cask Guyana 2008 Rum

So here is another, so far the last I have, of the special series of Plantation single cask (cask and bottle numbers on the label) rums. This one, labeled “Guyana 2008”, is on the expensive side at $85/750ml bottle. The other two, the Barbados XO ($50), and Peru 2004 ($85), I have also also reviewed. There are many more rums in this “single cask collection”. I’m sure I will never get to try them all.

What we’ve got here is 47.1% ABV aged 9+ tropical years in ex bourbon casks, and 1 year in France in Ferrand (the label says chestnut and accacia wood) casks. The label says “pot still”. The color is a medium amber, a nice cross between copper and brass colors. Legs are sort of thin medium and fall medium fast down the glass.

The aromas here are heady. I love taking deep droughts from the glass. Alcohol in the background smells sweet with no acetone or varnish notes. I get hints of brown sugar, prune, tobacco, and a deep chocolate-coffee mix that reminds me of Kahlua. These are very rich aromas.

Flavors like the aromas, but almost not there at all. This rum is dry, barely sweet at first, yet sweetness is there at the same time. What a contrast from the Barbados XO that tasted so much like it smelled (see review linked above). This by contrast has rich sweet aromas and only a hint of the same sorts of sweetness in the flavors but yet they are all there somewhere. It is creamy, moderately, from the first sip, and has a nice long barely there but sweet aftertaste. There is only the slightest bit of heat in this one when first swallowed, but it hangs around for a while. Good for a cold afternoon.

Remember this claims to be a pure pot-still rum, fermented for a week (from the label) which I think is pretty long for a rum, and yet there is no funk here what-so-ever. This sort of subtlety is where my rum taste seems to be going. This Plantation Guyana is absolutely marvelous like some of the Foursquare’s I’ve reviewed in the past. I notice that most are in the $80+ range. Maybe if I drink slowly I won’t notice!

I have not in any of these reviews said anything about the bottle labels. They are beautiful (particularly the front — pictures in all the reviews) and have a lot of information (both front and back). They don’t say everything you might want to know, but much more than most. Definitely collectibles if you are into such things.

So wow! If you can afford it, try it. A standard setter for rich aromas and subtle flavors!

Review: Plantation Barbados XO Single Cask Rum

Review: Plantation Barbados XO Single Cask Rum

 

One of three Plantation limited production (single cask) rums I’ve purchased in the last few months. I reviewed the PERU here, and now it’s the Barbados’ turn.

At 48% ABV this is a nicely balanced rum, and the least expensive of these new offerings at $50/750ml bottle. It is first a blend of pot-still and double-column distillates. Tropically aged for “several years” (that from the front label) in ex bourbon barrels, this rum then gets 1 more year in “Amburana casks”, a South (and perhaps also central) American wood. There is not much to be found about Amburana on wikipedia. There is more confusion to be had here. The front label says “Amburana” (and numbers the cask and bottle) while the back label says the rum spends its last six months aging in “Ferrand oak” which is not a kind of wood that I can find, but rather a person famous for his cognac.

With this confusion not cleared up much, lets get to the rum itself.

Color: Not pale but not yet even medium dark I’d say the color is medium-pale, less red copper than more yellow brass, but somewhere in between.

Legs: Thin and medium fast.

Aroma: When I first opened this rum the scent of cinnamon was overwhelming. As it evolved in the bottle a bit the cinnamon joined with baked apple. Yes this smells like a rich home-made apple pie! I also sense raisin, prune, white grape, nutmeg, faint brown sugar, and only lastly the alcohol. I discern no acetone notes nor particularly any oak. The fruitiness, especially apple are front and center.

Flavor: I have not yet tasted a rum where the dominant aroma notes translated to well to the taste. Baked apple and cinnamon are the dominant notes. The first time I tried this it was mostly cinnamon, but the apple came along after a few days and the mix of both along with other dark fruits has stayed with it now through about a quarter of the bottle. The rum is sweeter than most that I like now, but I have learned to stay in touch with sweeter rums (mostly via El Dorado 15) but this is another I like very much. Distinctly sweet compared to the Plantation Peru or any of the Foursquare rums I’ve come to love, but not over-much so.

It is not creamy but rather glassy-sharp from the first sip on and has a long distinctly sweet aftertaste where the brown sugar note comes forward. I usually find after-tastes to be less sweet, even a little bitter as oaky flavors come forward, but this rum is an exception. The apple-cinnamon combination dials back as the glass finishes and one has a hint of hard apple cider. All throughout there is a nice bit of fire in the swallow, but it never gets harsh. Despite the pot-still component there is no funk in this rum either of the rotten fruit or vegetal sorts.

In conclusion medium expensive and just a little sweet for my taste now, but I think worth keeping around to try again later. Highly recommended, especially if you are wanting to migrate from sweeter to less-sweet rums.

Here a little marketing blurb from Plantation on these single barrel rums

Rum Review: Plantation 2004 Peru Rum

Rum Review: Plantation 2004 Peru Rum

I am finding a lot of nice rums lately. This one new to me, a 16 year-aged rum from Plantation. Pretty bottle, pretty and very tasty Rum. The particulars..

43.5 ABV $62 U.S.

 

Nice back label too…

Color: medium amber, not at all dark, light copper-brass colored, as much yellow than red.

Legs: many slow but thin legs come from the top of the swirl line.

Aroma: mild, nice mix of light and dark fruit, raisin, orange, apple, maple sugar, warm spice (nutmeg?), little alcohol on the aroma, no young acetone notes.

Flavor: Strikes me as thin and creamy at the same time. Hint of raw sugar, vanilla, light caramel, very clean, glassy, some tobacco and sugar on the medium finish. Smooth but warm throughout and a tiny bit of raw sugar sweetness suffuses the taste experience throughout.  Not a lot of heat but steady. This is an amazingly light rum for a 14-year aging ending with 2 years in ex cognac casks. Of course the tasters at Master of Malt get a lot more flavors out of this than I do (see below), but there is nothing “spicy” about it that I can sense.

Pairing: A good flavorful cigar is enriched by this rum which doesn’t much interfere with it. So far my stronger and sweeter sticks like the Foundation Tabernacle and Roma Craft HOxD are great additions.

From master of malt: (see link above) Peruvian rum, bottled as part of the rather brilliant Plantation range. This one comes from Destilerias Unidas S.A. de Peru and was distilled in 2004. It was initially matured for 12 years before being moved to France for a finishing period of two years in Cognac casks. Intriguing and spicy stuff.

Here is another review from Flaviar.