As we’ve written about several times in the past, the rum industry can be subject to both a lot of gimmickry and a lot of misinformation. Poor standards for labeling can allow companies to get away with deceptive advertising, while the “premium” sphere of modern rums has arguably had a negative effect upon redefining consumers’ idea of what “good rum” tastes like, pushing them away from the nuance found in genuinely aged rums and in the direction of artificially flavored or sweetened facsimiles that bear no age statement.
It is refreshing, then, to receive a press release about a new aged rum release where the only gimmick is straight-up transparency. Holmes Cay Single Cask Rum is a new boutique rum bottling company, with an initial limited release that has recently arrived in the U.S. At a mere 504 bottles, this is an ultra-limited amount of rum, but it should probably be considered simply a taste of what Holmes Cay has planned. And if the future releases are anything like this one, then something special is happening here.
The first release from Holmes Cay is simply titled Barbados 2005, and is exactly what the name would imply—a 14-year-old, single barrel rum from the island’s iconic Foursquare Distillery, well known among any of the proper rum geeks out there. It’s fitting that the first Holmes Cay release should hail from here, as Bajan rum is among the oldest in the world, with many of the spirit’s creation myths pegging Barbados as the first rum-producing island in the Caribbean. So too is Foursquare a sensible pick—the product of a family that has been making rum since 1820, it’s known for producing a wide variety of brands, including The Real McCoy, Rum Sixty Six and the eponymous Foursquare rums. There’s no shortage of heritage here, and the Holmes Cay label presents it all very simply, trusting the consumer’s knowledge of spirits, which I appreciate.
What’s more, Holmes Cay isn’t just committed to releasing well-aged, single-barrel variants from famous rum distilleries—they’re doing it at barrel proof as well. The Barbados 2005 weighs in at a massive 128 proof (64% ABV), certainly among the strongest aged rums I’ve ever consumed. At that kind of proof, and after 14 years in the wood, you can practically guarantee an explosively flavorful end result, and the Barbados 2005 certainly doesn’t fault on that front.
So, let’s get to tasting.
On the nose, the fact that this rum isn’t all ethanol is already impressive on its own, given the exceptionally high proof. The oak has clearly tempered the alcohol character nicely, leaving us with notes of butterscotch, buttered popcorn, brown sugar and nutmeg.