I didn’t wake up that morning thinking that I’d hack sugar cane with an old machete and stick my nose into a massive barrel that previously held Napoleon Cognac. Then again, I’ve learned over the years that writing about spirits, wines, food, and travel often leads to some decidedly unexpected situations. Like any good journalist, then, I simply went with it: The femur-length blade in the scorching Panamanian sun, the tasting and spitting out of a car-payment’s worth of spirits, it was all in the interest of getting the story.
Which was…rum?
Indeed. Because the spirit that fueled countless collegiate parties and dreadful mornings-after for my generation of Americans has, in recent years, undergone a renaissance. From firewater of questionable provenance and composition to sipping spirit as worthy of contemplation as any single malt Scotch or small-production bourbon, rum, as a category, has quietly shed its old image and emerged, though not without some difficulty, into the world of high-end drinking.
The harvesting of sugar cane, like these workers are doing at Ron Abuelo, is the first step in the... [+]
The friction that has manifested itself is due in large part to common misunderstandings among consumers about rum. As with any spirit, ingrained perceptions are difficult to break. Rum, with its history of having been marketed as a fun-time drink, best mixed into cloyingly sweet and often fruit-heavy concoctions, or otherwise infused with enough spices and flavorings to cover up whatever character the spirit itself may once have possessed, has historically been uniquely susceptible to this sort of stereotyping.
But according to the most recent statistics available from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), overall sales of rum in the US have been on the rise for years, growing from 18,562,000 liters in 2002 to 24,793,000 liters in 2015. Despite slight dips in volume and revenue in 2014 - 2015, “super premium rum” grew by 2.9% volume and 2.8% revenue, despite the fact that “premium” and “high end premium” showed slight declines.
One nice thing about high-end rum for the consumer is that it tends to be more affordable than comparable aged whiskeys, points out mixologist Keith Raimondi, who created the bar and cocktail program at Philadelphia’s much-lauded Townsend, and who expects to open his “new American bar” The Dapper Goose in Buffalo, NY, in mid- to late-July. Macallan 12, a popular single malt Scotch, can be found for $50 online; El Dorado 12-year rum hovers closer to $30. Flor de Caña 18-year rum costs approximately $50, whereas Elijah Craig 18 single barrel bourbon is anywhere between $150 and $200, and the Glenmorangie 18 single malt Scotch around $100.
“[This] is the really beautiful thing about rum: It’s really accessible,” says Raimondi.
Comparing rum and whiskey is instructive, Raimondi said, because there is often a natural affinity for high-end bottlings of both among fans of brown spirits. “To me, aged rums are built for whiskey drinkers,” he said. “Because anytime you throw something in a barrel, you start picking up those same characteristics.”
The trick, however, is getting consumers to try them. Which is where education comes in.
Happily, a rum-education push is underway. This past winter in New York, for example, I attended an excellent, educational tasting of rums from around the Caribbean at Drexler’s, sponsored by the trade group Authentic Caribbean Rum and attended by journalists and mixologists alike, with the goal of parsing the stylistic variations of rum from one country to another. That sort of geographical approach to the spirit would have been unheard of a decade or two ago among all but the most passionate rum lovers. Today, however, rum education of that sort is becoming more popular all the time.
Aged rum often offers excellent value. This one, the Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva, is only $40... [+]
As rum knowledge becomes more widespread, and consumers’ and professionals’ awareness of rum’s versatility and stylistic diversity continues to grow, the demand for ever more geographically specific or exclusive products will rise alongside. Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva ($40 SRP) is a richly textured beauty that sees as much as 12 years of aging in oak casks. This Venezuelan producer also crafts single-vintage bottlings ($85) as well as their top-of-the-line Ambassador rum ($200), which follows up to a dozen years minimum in white oak casks with another two years in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. Plantation Rum is doing something similar with barrel finishing, but in their case, the rums, like the Barbados 2001 Vintage ($44.99), are shipped to France for their final aging in former Cognac casks. Zaya Gran Reserva ($29.99), from Trinidad and Tobago, is a blend of a dozen aged rums, some as old as 18 years. As far as high-end rhum agricole (the distilled-sugar-cane spirit of the French West Indies), Martinique’s Rhum Clément produces a bottling called Cuvée Homère Clément (approximately $100), which is elegant and fantastically complex.
This past March, I was invited to travel to Panama on a press trip run by Ron Abuelo as one of the first handful of American journalists to taste, in their finished form, the rums in the new Finish Collection XV (each with an SRP of $70). The three variations in the collection all start out like Abuelo’s other offerings: As a blend of two types of distillate of molasses—both a high-proof, light and creamy rum and a more aromatic, lower-proof base rum—produced from sugar cane that’s harvested from the company’s own 1,200 hectares (approximately 3,000 acres) of plantings. From there, it’s aged for 14 years in American white oak casks and then finished in barrels that previously held either Napoleon cognac, Oloroso sherry, or Tawny port. The first nearly decade and a half of aging lends the rums classic oak flavors like vanilla, spice, caramel, and more—those layers of complexity that brown-spirit lovers tend to look for. But it’s the final stint in those specifically chosen barrels that really sets them apart.
High-end rum is making inroads with the whiskey crowd. Bottlings like the new Ron Abuelo Finish... [+]
The Oloroso-finished bottling boasts excellent sweetness balanced out by more savory tones. The result is a dance between cedar, toasted almonds, spice and salt alongside orange peel, honeysuckle and caramel. The Finish Collection XV Napoleon is fresh on the nose, with salt and praline aromas, and flavors of cacao nibs, Toblerone chocolate with honey flecks and a finish gently smoky and salty. Finally, the Finish Collection XV Tawny bursts with hints of dried cherry that turns dryer and more mysterious as the finish rolls on. I’d love to enjoy this particular bottle with foie gras, blue cheese, or a great cigar.
Whatever the occasion, or the pairing partner it’s sipped alongside, Ron Abuelo’s Finish Collection XV is deliciously indicative of this new world of super premium rum, and of rum’s evolution as a whole. It’s a category that warrants close attention as it continues to evolve, and that justifies as much real-world research among consumers and professionals as possible—which, happily, means sipping and contemplating more high-end rum. Or, if the opportunity presents itself, sticking your nose into a rum-filled Cognac barrel after brandishing a machete. Either way, it’s a win.
