How often does one have an opportunity to taste a dram of liquid history? These kinds of chances don’t come around every day, so it’s best to recognize them for the special experiences they are when you get that opportunity. And Appleton Estate 17 Year Legend Rum absolutely feels like one of those moments, for anyone with even an inkling of appreciation for tiki cocktails or rum history.
Where to begin? Suffice to say, it’s not just an age statement that makes this limited edition, one-off release from Jamaica’s Appleton Estate special. The distillery already produces excellent 15- and 21-year-old expressions that are fairly accessible, so there’s nothing inherently unique about a 17 year old rum from Jamaica’s most well-known distillery. What makes this release special is the conscious effort being made by Appleton Master Blender Joy Spence to recreate one of the rum world’s most famous, sought-after bottles from the past–J. Wray & Nephew 17 Year Old. Why is that brand significant? Because it was the original basis of the prince of all classic tiki cocktails, the mai tai.
Today, you might know the mai tai as the most abused of all cocktail recipes, frequently presented as a syrupy mess of seemingly random rums and fruit juices. The original mai tai, on the other hand, is a sublime thing of beauty–a showcase for funky and fruity Jamaican aged rum, accented by flavors of orange, lime and sweet almond. The cocktail was invented by “Trader Vic” Bergeron in 1944, in a time when heavily aged Caribbean rums were significantly easier to come by. Thus, when Bergeron cooked up what would become the mai tai for the first time, he reached for what he liked best, which was J. Wray & Nephew 17 Year Old. That rum then became the basis of Vic’s original cocktail in his bars, but its popularity soon began to deplete the stock of J. Wray & Nephew 17 Year. Before long, Trader Vic had to move on to other, younger rums, creating new versions of the “adjusted” mai tai recipe that used blends of Jamaican rum and other aged rums. The original J. Wray & Nephew 17 Year, on the other hand, became a collectors item, and there are only a few known, unopened bottles floating around today. It left a permanent mystery for cocktail geeks: What did the original mai tai really taste like, and how can it best be recreated in the modern day?
There have been many excellent expressions intended to step into this gap, such as Denizen’s Merchant’s Reserve, but Appleton Estate 17 Year Legend represents the closest possible match to the original J. Wray & Nephew, thanks to the shared ownership of the brands and Joy Spence’s access to historical distilling records. Suffice to say, we’re never going to get closer to than this ever again, nor does Appleton intend to go through the hassle of recreating this one again. It’s a very small batch release of just 1,500 bottles, but that’s better than nothing–at least it will give a generation of tiki geeks a chance to make a true, 1944 style mai tai at least once.
So with all that said, let’s get to tasting the 17 Year Legend–first neat, and then in a mai tai. Because you have to make a mai tai, even if you only have a couple ounces of press sample. Making a mai tai is not optional, when it comes to this release.
On the nose, Appleton Estate 17 Year Old Legend throws off heady waves of fruit and funk, evoking bananas foster, orange peel, dark chocolate, toffee, a little tobacco and mashed plantains. The earthy, herbal funk of Jamaican rum (known as hogo) is more pronounced here than in core Appleton expressions, suggesting a higher ester count and probably a larger percentage of distillate from the company’s pot stills than in most of the blends. This would seemingly be in line with fitting the historical record, in which the Jamaican rums of the day such as the J. Wray & Nephew 17 Year Old were more pot still dominated.
On the palate, this is indeed significantly heavier and more funky than the usual Appleton expressions you’re finding on store shelves, such as the 8- or 12-year-old. Ripe tropical fruit and brown sugar lead off with assertive command, followed by charred oak, orange pol and darker dried fruit notes. Complex herbal, earthy flavors of tobacco and dried herbs add layer after layer of additional flavors to suss out. This is not one of the modern high-ester Jamaican bruisers that have become so popular in the mixology world, such as Rum Fire–it’s a more elegant, refined version of that after such a patient aging and blending process. It’s an absolutely delicious dram, consumed neat.
In a mai tai, meanwhile–you’ll have to choose which recipe you want to use, but Appleton’s suggested one is below–the rum shines through in a powerful way, with waves of overripe fruit and sweet earthiness, accented by sweet almond paste and a twist of bitter orange. It really is like tasting history.
Appleton Estate Mai Tai Recipe
2 oz. Appleton Estate 17 Year Old Legend
.5 oz Fresh Lime Juice
.5 oz. Orange Curaçao
.5 oz Orgeat (Almond) Syrup
Combine in a shaker filled with ice (crushed and cubed). Shake well and chill. Pour into a double old fashioned glass. Garnish with one lime shell and fresh mint sprig.
At the end of the day, this release is a triumph, and it’s sad that it will be a one-and-done. At the same time, it’s one of those exemplary bits of historical ephemera that almost couldn’t be turned into a regularly available brand without diluting its mystique. With only 1,500 bottles being released, there will surely be tiki geeks who want to try this and never get the chance, which is unfortunate. But there will also be many who get to check “original 1944 mai tai” off their bucket list, and at the end of the day I’m on board for that kind of unlikely wish fulfillment.
Distillery: Appleton Estate
City: Santa Cruz, Jamaica
ABV: 49% (98 proof)
Availability: Limited, 750 ml bottles, $500 MSRP
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.