As the boutique rum blenders/bottlers at Holmes Cay have continued to hone their craft in recent years, they’ve explored a number of avenues toward broadening the product lineup. This has included more affordable blended expressions and single origin rums from exotic locales, but at its heart the company was always built around its original focus of single cask rums. That series has continued on, and continues to produce exceptional bottles on a regular basis, the latest being Holmes Cay Barbados 2009 Premier Cru, arguably one of their most interesting and unusual expressions to date. Although really, we expect nothing less from the brand at this point.
This is a single cask–which means this release is about as limited as they get by definition–originally distilled by Foursquare in Barbados and bottled by Holmes Cay. It’s a blend of copper pot still rum and Coffey column still rum from 100% molasses, which spent 8 years tropically aging in Barbados in ex-bourbon casks, and then another 4 years in the UK in ex-bourbon casks. It then spent a final 2 years in New York in a very special finishing cask: Premier Cru (First Growth) Bordeaux wine casks from France. The final result is non-chill filtered and bottled at a cask strength of 55% ABV (110 proof).
That is a long finishing period, in a particularly difficult style of barrel to lay one’s hands on. Unsurprisingly, it bears a high MSRP of $170, in line with other single cask offerings from Holmes Cay.
I was particularly interested to taste this one, given a relative lack of familiarity with rum finished in red wine casks in specific. We certainly encounter no shortage of rum that has come into contact with various styles of fortified wine such as sherry, port and madeira, but I’m curious to see how this particular cask will impact an already well-aged Bajan rum. So with that said, let’s get to tasting.