American Rum Report #23 — January 31, 2020
Good morning! Let's kick this report off with an announcement:
I, along with co-host John Gulla, just launched a podcast about rum called the Rumcast! 🎉
Our first three episodes are live on Apple Podcasts and our website (rumcast.com), so you can listen to them in your favorite podcast app or on the web.
But first, let's address the obvious question you're thinking:
Dude, do we really need another podcast?
On the topic of rum, I actually think the answer is yes. :)
There are so many amazing things happening in rum across the world right now, but I've long felt that it's difficult to actually hear from the folks who are making those amazing things happen (unless you travel to rum events).
The goal of the Rumcast is to make those conversations more accessible. We want to make it easy and fun to explore what's happening in rum right now, while hopefully going beyond the surface level and pulling out those gems that non-rum obsessed coverage tends to miss.
I should also mention that, unlike American Rum Report, the Rumcast is not solely focused on American rum. So I'll most likely only mention it here when episodes touch on things relevant to ARR's focus.
That said, the first two people we interviewed do happen to have American rum connections.
In Episode #2, we talk to Eric Kaye, who recently launched Holmes Cay Rum, one of the only independent bottling companies in the U.S. that's focused on releasing truly ultra premium single cask rums from around the world (the first of which was distilled at Foursquare in Barbados). Eric discusses:
The American distilleries he would be most eager to source a barrel from
Underrated corners of the rum world
How he settled on a Barbados rum distilled at Foursquare for the brand's inaugural release
The challenges of being an independent rum bottler in the U.S.
What to expect from future Holmes Cay releases
In Episode #3, we talk to Maggie Campbell from Privateer Rum (Ipswich, MA) about quite a few topics I've touched on in previous reports, including:
Privateer's switch to 100% molasses for all of their rums
Their upcoming releases with Velier (and how those came about)
The process of creating a new rum expression
What the future looks like for Privateer
And a whole lot more
Again, you can check out the podcast on Apple Podcasts (or just search for it in your favorite podcast player) or right here on our website.
I would love your feedback on the initial episodes and would certainly appreciate a review on Apple if you enjoy them!
Before we go, a few quick links to catch you up on what's been happening in American rum ⚡
The International Wine and Spirits Competition featured Elgin Distillery's Regalo de Vida Ron Imperial (Elgin, AZ) in its Hand-Picked magazine citing its top-rated spirits of 2019 — As I mentioned back in Report #13, Elgin Distillery became the first American producer to win a gold medal from the IWSC last year. This entry in their magazine allows you to see the IWSC's tasting notes for the Arizona rum distilled from fermented fresh cane juice and aged for five years: "Toffee and dried fruits on the nose. On the palate, oak, fruit, orange, and chamomile. A hint of bell pepper, plus soy sauce and and black olive. Presents well throughout."
This piece from Wine-Searcher shows why "trend" reporting in the spirits industry often lacks important nuance or misses the bigger picture — There's a curious pattern I've noticed in spirits industry coverage. One outlet will report on something they deem to be a trend. Another outlet will latch onto the same idea, and then before you know it, it's become A Thing™. I feel like that's happened recently with the notion that rum is poised to take gin's place, or be "the next gin," or however else you want to say it. So I was delighted to see someone offering some much needed context to the conversation.
Richland Distilling (Richland, GA) is opening a renovated tasting room in the downtown building where its offices are located — I really need to make the drive over there sometime soon.
Barbados' Minister of Agriculture is calling on the country's rum producers to use more local molasses — While this story is about Barbados rum, it echoes one of the developments I mentioned in my "2019 in Review" article about the past year's most important American rum stories—an increasing amount of producers investing in base ingredients with a distinctive local connection.
In the article, Minister of Agriculture Indar Weir says: "I have been calling on rum producers to use more local molasses because the inputs in Barbados rum is what would define us and make us unique when we jostle for market share."
In other words, ingredients tell a powerful story, and it's not just small craft producers who realize this.
That's all for this week!
If you give the podcast a listen, shoot me a reply to this email and let me know what you think. And if you enjoy it and don't mind spreading the word, I'd be grateful.