Virago 151 Rum

I've been intrigued with Virago Spirits in Richmond, Virginia, ever since I interviewed co-founders Brad and Barry Haneberg during a livestream last year and got to learn more about their production process. While they've gotten most of their recognition to date for their Four-Port rum (which is a blend of rums sourced from Barbados, Nicaragua, Jamaica, and Panama), it's the rum they're distilling themselves that caught my attention right away.

All of their rum is distilled from fermented molasses in a direct-fire Charentais pot still (the kind you typically see in brandy production), and their fermentations last for weeks (and sometimes months, according to Brad). Most of that rum has gone straight into barrels, but they did release some of it as Virago 151—an unaged rum that, as you might have guessed, comes in at 151 proof.

To give you a closer look at the rum and the production process, I recorded a video with my impressions of Virago 151 along with some excerpts on Virago's production process from the livestream I mentioned earlier.

Full Disclosure: Virago sent me this bottle several months back when we did the livestream. I did not request it, nor did I offer to write or record anything about it. From time to time, producers send me bottles or samples. I don't solicit them or accept them with any kind of promise to promote them. However, when something happens to be interesting, I sometimes write about it, as I am doing now. Most of the time, if you see me writing or recording a video about a specific rum, it's something I've purchased on my own. When it's not, I always let you know. Cheers!