Tasting: Cask-Strength Rums from Barrell Craft Spirits
Photos via Barrell Craft Spirits
It can sometimes feel like the world of high-end, cask-strength rum releases exists only for a small segment of us tiki nerds. Unlike the comparable barrel proof bourbon segment, many of which are so eagerly snapped up by collectors and traders that they hardly land on shelves at all, $100-plus bottles of well-aged or uniquely blended rum seem to be something of a more acquired taste shared by the rum cognoscenti. But there are some remarkable products out there, if you know where to look.
Kentucky’s Barrell Craft Spirits is a company that is primarily known for their sought-after bourbon and rye releases—spirits we recently reviewed pretty warmly, acknowledging that the hype was well earned. Less publicized, however, is the truly in-depth work that BCS is doing with cask-strength rum releases, especially via the company’s Private Release series. This is an ever-evolving series of small, single cask-sized releases of rums that are very different in profile, but alike in their over-the-top flavor threshhold.
Your average Barrell Rum Private Release is a blend of 5 rums or rhums, hailing from a variety of Caribbean ports: Jamaica, Barbados, Martinique (there’s your rhum agricole) and Guyana. These include such disparate substyles as demerara pot still rum from Guyana, dunder rum from Jamaica and English-style molasses pot still rum from Barbados. The finished products bear no age statements, although Barrell tells me the range of rums swing from as young as 3 years (the Martinique agricole) to 21-year-old demerara.
That’s not the end, however, as each blend is then combined and rested in another, unique finishing cask—these run the gamut from a variety of fortified wines to former spirit barrels, which ultimately makes each blend completely different. Each is then lettered and numbered, and the single resulting cask results in about 150 to 180 bottles per blend. Some are sold to a single retailer or club, while others are split between a few states or sold by the bottle by Barrell. If you come across these Private Releases, bearing the purple label, you’ll want to reference the blend number to the master list on the company’s website, which will reveal the specific finishing cask involved. The MSRP of these releases can vary quite a bit, although Barrells sets it at $109.99. Retailers, however, may go significantly higher, or occasionally lower.
For our tasting, Barrell sent two samples finished in very different ways. There’s Blend J802, at 129.5 proof, which is “80% Jamaican,” with the additional rums married in a French cognac cask. And on the other hand, there’s Blend B903, which is “90% Barbados,” with the final mix blended in a barrel “conditioned with Sicilian Amaro.” Suffice to say, the difference between brandy and amaro alone made me very curious how these might differ.
So let’s get to tasting, and find out.
Barrell Rum Private Release J802
At almost 130 proof, it’s fair to say this rum is a monster, and just uncapping the bottle you immediately get a strong waft of molasses, vanilla and fruit that starts filling the room. Feeling like I should at least attempt to sample this neat, I nosed the glass and got an immediate head rush of intense notes: Booze of course, along with powerful molasses, caramel, vanilla, clovey spice and fudgy chocolate. This one smells particularly rich—more “desserty” in tone than B903 would prove to be, although this is of course relative.