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30-Year Jamaican Rum from Appleton Estate - (estimated retail price: $350 per bottle) Thursday, we're pouring one ounce for $12
The Spirits Project this Thursday will venture for the first time into the arena of Rum. By definition, whiskey comes from grain and brandy comes from fruit (commonly grapes), so rum originates in sugar.
The history of the rum trade is inextricably tied up with the expansion of European powers into the New World. There are inland rums of course, from Venezuela, Australia, Brazil and other places. But much of the world’s rum are island rums.
French-speaking islands generally produce rhum from sugar cane juice. The most famous are the Rhum Auricle, which are regulated in an A.O.C. system just like French wine. Spanish and English-speaking islands produce their rum, not directly from sugar cane juice, but from molasses.
The English-speaking islands, like Jamaica are known for the darker flavors that retain some molasses and brown sugar qualities and can be fleshed out with notes of hard spice and citrus peel.
In warm island climates, rum tends to age much more quickly than a whisky in a damp and generally cooler Scottish bog. While a 12-year-old Scotch is quite common, a 12-year island rum is quite old indeed! This 30 year Appleton Estate bottling therefore is quite the rare breed.
The rums used to produce it were distilled in Jamaica, sent to Scotland to age for 8 years, then blended and sent back to Jamaica to marry and age for another 22 years. Under the laws of Jamaica, which are Scottish-English in origin, each of the rums that enter a bottle must have been aged in oak barrels for at least the number of years stated on the label. It’s not an average age statement like in some jurisdictions; it’s a minimum age statement.
There were 120 cases produced.
We will open one bottle at 6:30. When it's gone, it's gone.
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