Duncan Taylor Single Cask Rum – St Lucia 2002 – Cask 5

Duncan Taylor are an independent bottler of (mainly) whisky, and in their own words:

“Duncan Taylor & Company has ownership of one of the largest privately-held collections of rare scotch whisky casks. The company has been “laying down” casks from premium Scottish distilleries for decades and has, in recent years, made its branded products available to whisky connoisseurs throughout the World.

Duncan Taylor has its origins in Glasgow where the company was initially a merchant and broker of Scotch Whisky casks within the Industry. Devotion to the principle of providing only the finest casks to be filled at Scotland’s leading distilleries has been a key feature of the company’s history and this tradition of building an outstanding portfolio of only the finest scotch whiskies is being maintained to this day by the current owners.

When the company moved its headquarters to the North East of Scotland, close to Speyside – Scotland’s largest whisky producing region – it also took the decision to focus on the production and marketing of its own brands and to cease the “brokering” of whisky in cask form to Distillery companies and Independent bottlers.”

They are also celebrating 80 years of business, being founded in 1938.

Duncan Taylor bottle many Rums, mainly at cask strength or close to cask strength. Having whisky as their origin they do not chill filter and they bottle with natural colour. Now I have numerous bottlings from Duncan Taylor spanning Jamaica, St Lucia, Guyana and Fiji. I also have one of their own Caribbean Blends. Up for review today though is one of their St Lucia offerings.

Duncan Taylor Single Cask Rum – St Lucia 2002 – Cask 5 – 52.6% abv

You can have a read of my previous writings on products from St Lucia Distillers here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Phew. Now you’ll be fully versed with St Lucia Distillers, we can continue. As the label states, this Rum was distilled in September 2002 and bottled in September 2013 giving it 11 years of (assumed) Continental age. Bottled entirely from Cask No 5 which yielded 242 bottles, this has been bottled at 52.6% which I can only assume is cask strength. Though others have questioned bottle yield with assumed angel share and assumed barrel size to potentially arrive at a different number insinuating that it may not be cask strength. I personally can’t say I’m too bothered to dig into that. Of note is the fact that this Rum is Pot distilled. Now St Lucia Distillers have 3 Pot Stills, the John Dore I, John Dore II and Vendome. Given the date of distillation of 2002, that would point towards the John Dore I still as it is the only one that was commissioned at that point. It is also the smallest of their batch stills with a capacity of 1500 litres.

John Dore I on the left

Vendome Pot Still centre, John Dore II behind, John Dore I left

Tasting Notes

Glass: The Rum displays as a dark straw gold  in the glass. Heavy. Medicinal pot still. A little diesel and a dose of creosote. All the good stuff. Sticking plasters and antiseptic cream. A hint of menthol and mint. Quite grassy too. Rubber and acetone back up the medicinal quality of the nose and time in the glass allows the merest hint of savoury vanilla and sticky grilled pineapple. Citrus oil. Whiffs of sweet smoke. It has quite a fresh and nuanced nose that gives more and more over time like the merest hint of barrel influence. A brine and salty quality is ever-present and is rounded out with a hint of powdery icing sugar. A few drops of water and half an hour in the glass adds enamel paint and sugarcane.

Mouth: Very heated entry with the smallest and short-lived hint of sweetness in the form of floral wildflower honey before the dryness shoulder barges its way in. Mint. Creosote. Petrol. Oily but not viscous. A thinner mouthfeel than expected but it does cling on, mainly in the vapours. Almond brittle. No really influential barrel notes can be picked up through the peppery heat. Liquorice. Olives and salty feta cheese. If its possible for Rum to morph into a molasses based offering from Guadeloupe mid-palate, this one does. Bringing with it pickle vinegar and ginger puree. A few drops of water push the sweeter elements to the fore with chocolate, dialed down brine. Less mint. More menthol.

Quite a long finish starts out relatively sweetly with the sugary minty residue from the bottom of a poorly made mojito and wildflower honey but again this dries to leave a grassy sugarcane and mild vanilla. Maybe some almonds. The medicinal pot still note announces itself again bringing to mind any number of Rockley ‘style’ Rums…..but for me never hitting the flavourful heights of them.

It is St Lucian Pot Still Rum at its most identifiable from first nosing. It is everything that I like about St Lucian Pot Still Rum. I would love to see more barrel influence that would come with tropical age and although it’s probably completely off the table given the new owners, a release of cask strength tropically aged individual still offerings from St Lucia Distillers would be welcomed with open arms and wallets by the geeky Rum crowd. Its good, almost very good, but it just lacks that light and shade that I think tropical age would offer.

3.5 / 5

© Steven James and Rum Diaries Blog 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, both written and photographic without the express and written permission from this blog/sites author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steven James and Rum Diaries Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content

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Hamilton Ministry of Rum Collection – St Lucia 2005 Cask Strength

This bottle, unavailable in the UK was obtained at the 2015 UK Boutique RumFest. Ed Hamilton had his rum collection on display for tasting and this particular bottle, along with the Jamaicans really stood out. I was fortunate enough to win a coin toss with Keegan that saw me go home with the remains of this bottle and Keegan go home with the remains of the Jamaican (following mutual sample swaps). Aside from the occasional drop here and there, the bottle has spent the last two years gassed and sealed using parafilm at the back of my St Lucia shelf. So it’s about time that I write about it whilst there is still enough left. The majority of you will be familiar with the Ministry of Rum website that was started by Ed Hamilton many moons ago. Most of us will have used this website as a source of information and discussion and many still do. Anyhow, Ed decided to release a series of Rums under the Hamilton Ministry of Rum Collection and if you live within the USA you’re fortunate as that is currently the only point of distribution, but not everywhere given the differing state laws. But you’re here for the Rum…..

Vendome Pot Still centre, John Dore II behind, John Dore I left

Hamilton Ministry of Rum Collection – St Lucia 2005 Pot Still Rum – 66.7% abv

The barrels were shipped to New York for bottling in late 2014, and this particular bottle of pot still magic came from barrel number 420 and is bottled at cask strength. The Rum was distilled on the 2000 litre Vendome Pot Still which was commissioned in 2003. Rum from this still is always produced for ageing according to the information at hand. The distillate was condensed at approx. 82% abv and is collected in large holding tanks with other batches from the same still. From there the distillate which now sit at around 70% abv is matured in ex-bourbon barrels. Distilled in October 2005, this Rum was bottled in January 2015 giving it just over 9 years of tropical maturation. Again, if you refer to other St Lucia posts on this site, more information regarding stills and marques can be found. Personally I have found that certain stills at St Lucia Distillers offer something that for me has only ever been found in the ‘Rockley Style’ Rums from Barbados, so as a proposition this Rum is pretty attractive.

Tasting Notes

Glass: The Rum is a dark burnished gold and it appears to be nice and oily….you can’t help but smile at the aromas flooding out of this impressive cask strength thoroughbred. The initial spike of alcohol astringency is short-lived and gives way to beautifully accessible aromas of acetone, rubber and pear drops. Very apparent and growing oaken influence is present as is wet cardboard. It’s remarkably approachable given its heft. Little whiffs of smoke give way to wet pumice stone. There is a light and quite frankly beautiful medicinal quality to this Rum. Time sees growing stone fruit, raisins and cocoa. The medicinal notes are well-tempered by the fruit and underlying oaken spine to the distillate. Burnt orange oil rounds out things. This really is just a delight to sit and nose….

Mouth: Dry, spicy entry. Tannic. Oily. Chocolate, honeycomb (crunchie bars), light, delicate florals all make an appearance in a very impressive first few sips. There is a peppery spike of oak followed up by black olives, salty brine, acetone and that quite frankly beautiful medicinal note. Water (only a few drops) brings out syrupy oat flapjacks, tropical fruit (guava and pineapple), liquorice, wet wood and leather. Again and again, this Rum really impresses. The finish is long, tannic and full of liquorice, acetone, olives and those majestic medicinal notes with the merest hint of sticky dates.

The interplay of flavours and aromas from this rum is mind-blowing. From the sublime medicinal notes to the fruit, acetone and solid oak presence. It’s the integration of all of these elements that makes this Rum so damn impressive. If you had any doubt about St Lucia’s ability to compete with the big guns of Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana then don’t….some really exciting stuff could be on its way out of St Lucia Distillers soon and I for one hope to be able to sample it….

For now, this is the best St Lucian that I have tried to date…..by a long shot….and I’ve tried a lot..

 

© Steven James and Rum Diaries Blog 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, both written and photographic without the express and written permission from this blog/sites author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steven James and Rum Diaries Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content