The spirits world is prone to hyperbole, to claims that companies are releasing ____ whiskey or ____ rum, finished in some novel way, something that has “never been done before” or may not be done again. It’s marketing 101 to triangulate some aspect of your latest release to highlight its novelty, before of course moving on to the next release to start the process all over again. As a writer who has been doing this for somewhere around a decade now, I try not to fall into that aggrandizing trap too often–you’re more likely to find me arguing that there is indeed nothing new under the sun. If you’re around for long enough, you will doubtlessly see the same types of spirits come and go, and there’s nothing wrong with that–it’s an inherent part of the cycle. So believe me, please, when I say that I’ve really never seen anything like Holmes Cay Infinity Rum before. The company calls this a one-of-a-kind release, and that’s absolutely the only term that could do it justice. In truth, this is more like a one-in-a-lifetime release. I’ve tasted it, and now the knowledge that I’ll never taste it again makes me feel a strange mixture of grateful and sad. This is something special.
The contents of Holmes Cay Infinity, which works out to only 100 total bottles, come from a single cask. But this isn’t a single cask of rum from some storied producer in Jamaica, or Guyana, or Barbados. That would already be a treat, from an independent bottler like Holmes Cay. Instead, this is a totally unique blend of historic rums from 13 distilleries, hailing from 7 different countries, encompassing a wide range of rum-making traditions. This is the bottling of a so-called “infinity cask,” a tool used by rum buying/aging/blending companies to combine the leftover portions of other casks or bottles that are no longer needed for tasting benchmark purposes. In this manner, the U.K.-based Main Rum Co. of Liverpool ended up with a cask containing distillate from Guyana, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, Barbados, Venezuela and Brazil. The cask was sealed by Main Rum Co. in November of 2003 and was then allowed to age another 20 years as all of the rums of Holmes Cay Infinity got to know one another. Some of those rums were unaged when they went into the cask; others were already quite mature. It works out to a blend of rums that are now between the ages of 20 and 47 years old, with the oldest in the bunch being a 47-year-old rhum agricole from Gardel Distillery of Guadeloupe.
Put simply, this is a cask full of history. There are flavors here that harken back to rums that none of us can ever easily taste again–particularly because 5 of the 13 distilleries represented in the Holmes Cay Infinity blend are no longer in operation. This thing is a time capsule. A $1,500 MSRP, 58% ABV (116 proof) time capsule. You almost certainly won’t encounter this in the wild, even if you go looking for it. Neither will I. Once it’s gone, it will be well and truly gone forever, but oh what fun it was to taste it while it was here.
The full distillery list contained within Holmes Cay Infinity is as follows:
Guyana: Guyanese/demerara rum makes up the majority of the blend at 74%, and includes rum from Uitvlugt Estate, Enmore Estate and Diamond Distillery.
Jamaica: Jamaican rum makes up 15% of the blend, and includes rum from Hampden Estate, Long Pond Distillery and Clarendon Distillery.
Guadeloupe: Guadeloupe rum makes up 5% of the blend, and includes rum from Montbello Distillery, Gardel Distillery and Poisson Distillery.
Trinidad: Trinidadian rum makes up 3% of the blend, and includes rum from Caroni Distillery.
Barbados: Bajan rum makes up 1% of the blend, and includes rum from West Indies Rum Distillery.
Venezuela: Venezuelan rum makes up 1% of the blend, and includes rum from Pampero Distillery.
Brazil: Brazilian rum makes up 1% of the blend, and includes rum from Epris Distllery.
The rums involved in Holmes Cay Infinity thus included both molasses-based rums and rhum agricole made from fresh-crushed sugar cane juice, and both pot still rums (48%) and column still distillate (39%), with an additional 13% of blended pot and column still distillate. Even more detail on the specific marques of the distilleries involved, and the history of those distilleries, is included in a 50-page mini-book with each bottle of the blend, giving a richly detailed account of exactly how this product ultimately came to be.
The only thing left, then, is to taste my tiny press sample.
Holmes Cay Infinity Rum Tasting
I began to initially write this up as a conventional review, but I immediately concluded that this seemed inappropriate to the uniqueness of the product and the task: Giving this a standard review score would be like a modern film critic writing a review of an archival or stock footage library from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Those who actually do purchase these $1,500 bottles will likely be doing so for reasons of historical appreciation, having little if anything to do with the question of “So how does it taste?” There’s probably some eccentric millionaire out there who will end up with one of these bottles and proceed to mix it with Coke, and even that feels appropriate in its own absurd way in the grand scheme of things. After all, conventional drinking is how most of the distillate here started out, even if it’s the now 47-year-old rhum agricole that was distilled in 1976. If you shell out for one of these, consume it as you see fit.
On the nose, Holmes Cay Infinity presents with a medley of different oak notes–some of them musty and old, some surprisingly toasty and warm. This is redolent in rich caramelized sugars and baking spice, particularly in the vein of allspice, along with vanilla, dark chocolate, nuttier cacao nibs and roasted pineapple. Ethanol is extremely reserved–in no lifetime would I assume that this was 116 proof. If I was smelling it blind, I would probably peg the proof as easily 20 points lower. It smells absolutely wonderful, although the aromatics aren’t necessarily explosive in terms of intensity, nor does it read as massively oaked. It’s actually more on the elegant side.
On the palate, this can boast a viscous and silky smooth texture. It still has considerable sweetness to it, with impressions of toffee, vanilla cream and ripe fruit leading the way, melding with espresso and assertive baking spice. Mild antique leather contributes a more delicately savory counterbalance, but it actually favors the sweeter impressions overall, with lingering cocoa and chocolate-covered banana. Over time, I’m also getting more of the uniquely earthy, grassy, rubbery aged rhum agricole note coming forward, probably a contribution of the undercurrent of Guadeloupe rum in here. The most shocking thing is that as on the nose, this really isn’t overpoweringly wood forward by any estimation–it’s not even strongly tannic, with just a subtle drying effect on the end of the sip. You would probably expect a rum of this nature to be wild in terms of its profile, something strange and challenging to the drinker, but the reality is that it’s actually extremely accessible. Everything about it is inviting, comforting.
What else is there to say? Holmes Cay Infinity wouldn’t really need to be objectively delicious in order to qualify as one of the most unique and fascinating things I’ve tasted in recent memory. The fact that it is objectively delicious is just a pleasant bonus. Maybe someday, when I’m an eccentric millionaire, I’ll track one of these surviving bottles down so I can pour it in my Coke, and make my own prophecy come to pass. Till then, I’ll be glad to have tasted it.
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.