Brinley Gold Shipwreck Rum

The Brinley Gold Shipwreck Rum distillery was founded in 1986 on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean just south of Anguilla, and got a distribution deal from Opici in 2005. While I haven't written about rum in a long time, I am still a fan of the spirit when made in the proper fashion. And over the years, I have tended to stay away from the flavored versions. However, the Brinley family has a commitment to all-natural ingredients and a focus on producing a smooth product, so I was eager to try these two bottles.

Brinley Gold Shipwreck Spiced Rum
$26/750mL bottle, 36% abv.

Blended with vanilla, cloves, orange, nutmeg, and other spices. I get a little pepper and allspice on the finish, and there's just a touch of sweetness. Far more reserved than most spiced rums on the market, and one that will work out well on the rocks. You can certainly mix it with Coke, but that has so many other spices involved that you're basically combining a string quartet with an orchestra and hoping that the end result sounds good.

Brinley Gold Shipwreck Vanilla Rum
$26/750mL bottle, 36% abv.

This is an interesting product. Most vanilla rums are very sweet and also as clear as water. This one, on the other hand is black as night. It has a dominant profile of blackstrap molasses (which I love), and in the glass it is thick, creamy, and hangs for a bit. It's really not until you let it breathe for a while that the molasses aroma fades back to reveal the Madagascar vanilla scent and flavor. The sweetness means that you'll definitely want to enjoy this as an after dinner dessert liqueur, though I can definitely see incorporating it into various recipes like pecan pie, cheesecake, or even chocolate chip cookies.

Note: These rums were provided as samples for review.

Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry

When most people think of Hawaii during the first half of the 20th century, they think about Pearl Harbor and a post-war vacation paradise. You don't hear a lot of details about life there during WWII, and that's mainly because it's difficult to do so in polite company.

Sailor Jerry was a cantankerous yet highly skilled tattoo artist who spent most of his life in Hawaii, settling there after a Depression-era stint in the Navy. After Pearl Harbor, the islands became hugely important to the Pacific war campaign, and thousands and thousands of young men passed through with plenty of free time and cash burning a hole in their pockets. The islands delivered with loads of bars, whorehouses, and tattoo parlors all clustered together for easy, drunken access.

There's a great documentary called Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry that details the man's life as well as this curious but unspoken chapter in American history, complete with photos of the tattoos both beautiful and obscene. When Jerry was tattooing "twin screws" on a sailor's rear end, he wanted to make sure that the ship's propellers were drawn accurately and with technical details. He studied the long history of Japanese tattoo art, refined his craft over time, and even invented his own inks and tools to produce better and more vivid work. I don't have any tattoos (I've always felt freckles make for a bad canvas), but I've designed many over the years for other people and find the art form fascinating.

Jerry died in 1973, but his designs remained popular and continue to be inked and marketed today. The rum bearing his art and name was introduced in 1999 by Ed Hardy and Mike Malone, two of his proteges. While rum is made in Hawaii, this one comes from the United States Virgin Islands. It's a territory of our great nation by way of a treaty with Denmark in 1917--just in time for Prohibition to halt 300 years of profitable distillation. Rum production and sale were outlawed, though it was still available from the nearby British Virgin Islands. Imagine a tourist in the 1920s. "Welcome to beautiful St. Croix! Would you like a Pepsi? We'll put an umbrella and a piece of pineapple in it so you think you're having fun!"

Sailor Jerry Rum
$25/1.75L bottle, 46% abv.

Unlike many spiced rums (I'm looking at you Captain Morgan), this isn't sweet, but rather subtly flavored with a proprietary blend of spices. I get some cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, with maybe a little pepper. It's a gentle application, whereas the brew I made last year was pretty potent. The Sailor Jerry is buttery and delicious, dry and smooth with just a little kick of black pepper on the finish. You can use it in cocktails if you want, but frankly it's great over ice and goes beautifully with a cigar. Despite the higher alcohol content it's not hot or astringent, but pace yourself.

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You can purchase the DVD of Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry or you can watch it online for $3 via Amazon.com.

Appleton 12 Year Old Rum

My friend Paul maintains a well-stocked liquor cabinet full of his favorites. On a recent housesitting gig I discovered a bottle of Appleton rum, something I hadn't had in a long time. Appleton Estate is the oldest rum distillery on the island of Jamaica, having been established in 1749. From the Nassau Valley, Appleton produces five varieties, from a basic V/X to the limited 30-year old. This 12 year old version rests in the middle of the product line.

Appleton Estate 12 Year Old Rum
$30/750mL, 43% abv.

Orange peel, vanilla, and an overall bittersweet character. As it warms in the hand, some earthy elements emerge. There's very little of the sugar character left here, instead the flavor is driven almost entirely by the oak aging.

My rule of thumb with rum is that if it's more than 5 years old, I don't mix it. Don't get me wrong, rum cocktails are great, but that's what younger white, gold, and dark rums are for. A Cuba Libre is delicious and refreshing, but you really don't want to cover up a well-aged rum with Coca-Cola and lime juice. Treat an aged rum like good whiskey. It can be sipped neat, but I'll admit to liking a little ice in mine.

Most people associate rum with fun, fruity cocktails or beach vacations, but please take the time to enjoy something like this. After dinner, in a proper snifter or tumbler, perhaps even with a cigar. You'll discover the depth and range that is possible with this spirit.

Flor de Caña Gran Reserva

Flor de Caña is a Nicaraguan rum whose name means "flower of the sugarcane", and I first sipped the 5 year old version a few years ago at a dinner party. I was impressed by the smooth complexity of it, and how it was an experience much closer to whiskey than what you would associate with rum. I've enjoyed some spectacular aged rums over the years, and just like wine it's interesting to see the differences between different regions. In this case, I'm talking about Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Anguilla, an Island South Of Miami, etc. Mainland rums aren't as frequently noticed but I've always had a soft spot for this one.

I received a sample of the Flor de Caña Gran Reserva, aged 7 years. After harvesting and processing the sugarcane from Chichigalpa on the western point of this triangular country, the distilled spirits are packaged in various ways. Beyond the white rums, you get bottles with 5, 7, 12, 15, or 18 years of barrel time. Nothing wrong with a white/silver rum for mixing, but the good aged brown ones are meant to be savored and enjoyed on their own. As a side note, Flor de Caña carries an OK Kosher Certification, which according to some sources makes them the only rum producer to do so (there are others out there). Interesting factoid to keep around for gift giving. There seems to be very little advertising or publicity around this little curiosity, and while it's not Kosher for Passover, I'd much prefer this over Slivovitz or other traditional spirits if I kept treyf bottles out of the house. L'chaim, amigos!

My tasting notes on the bottled rum: Savory, meaty, almost buttery aroma and flavor, with a silky smooth beginning and a quick, biting finish. It's a velvety rum, and drier and lighter than the 5 year old versions I've had in the past. This rum is 80 proof (40% abv) and retails for around $25 for a 750mL bottle in the Memphis area.

The press release suggested a series of options for making your own spiced rum. I'm not usually a fan of spiced rum, because it tends to be sweet and vanilla-flavored. Taste a few spiced rums and the vanilla tends to dominate the other flavorings. I hadn't ever considered making my own spiced rum before, so I decided to go in a uniquely Benito direction.

I used Telicherry black pepper, Sarawak white pepper, Chinese star anise, and cloves from Madagascar, mainly because these were some high quality spices that were on hand and I was inexplicably out of allspice. I really wanted to use some allspice in this mix.

I had no idea if this was going to work or not, but I decided it was worth sacrificing 250mL of the rum for an experiment. I sterilized an old jelly jar and added the spices, and topped it off with the rum. I kept the jar beside my computer for two weeks, and I would occasionally pick it up and turn it over a few times. I never shook it, but I gave it a turn from time to time, and would sniff it, or pour a dash into a glass for testing purposes.

After two weeks, the spiced rum was pretty fragrant, and a good 50mL had disappeared from a series of sips and tastings. I strained the spices out, cleaned the jar, and returned the spiced rum to its container. The anise is the dominant aroma and flavor, but the pepper hits you in the back of the mouth on the finish. It's rich and spicy, and as much as I love my little creation, I only want a sip or two on its own.

What's the perfect length of time for spicing a rum? Hard to say, because the literature recommends everything between one day to one year. But all sources suggest tasting it along the way, and the good part is that you can always make a highly spiced concentrate and then thin it out with more rum later on, or even adjust the spices along the way. This is actually much more fun than I thought it would be, and the result more enjoyable than I expected. If you have cardamom and ginger and saffron and other interesting spices on hand, give this a try. But what am I going to do with my delicious little jar?

I'm planning on using this in the greatest egg nog ever made. Stay tuned!


Note: This bottle was received as a sample.

Liquors from Slightly off the Beaten Path

Raiding a friend's liquor cabinet while housesitting can be an entertaining endeavor, because the brands are always somewhat different from your own and it gives you the opportunity to try something else. Sort of like when you're a kid spending the night at a friend's house and the spaghetti tastes just a little different, and the soap smells strange, and they watch a different channel for the evening news. Just by walking down the street your ten-year-old brain thinks you're in a different country.

With Paul's permission--really more of a mandate--here are two interesting liquors I tried.

Rhum Barbancourt is perhaps the best known Haitian rum, and has received some more attention since the recent earthquake, since it's one of the only Haitian products that you can purchase easily around the world. I've always found Haitian rum somewhat harsh and medicinal, but there are times when you want a bracing edge, and I certainly appreciate the distinction from some of the sweeter spirits in the Caribbean.

This is the 5 star rum, aged for 8 years. Lots of oak here--touch of vanilla, hint of sawdust, but mostly fresh cut oak boards. On the aftertaste you get cream and nutmeg. Most rum in this country is used as a mixer for various cheap and fruity cocktails, but anything aged like this really needs to be sipped and enjoyed on its own, like a fine whiskey. I've had some rums aged over 20 years, and they'll practically melt in your mouth.

I consider it "slightly off the beaten path" because you don't see many other Haitian rums, and as a category it's rare to find a rum labeled in French. Also, the most popular rums tend to come from places that are popular, politically stable vacation spots like Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, etc. It seems a little odd at times to enjoy a luxury product from the poorest country in the western hemisphere, but rum has been a prized export for the past 500 years.

Things are different than they were in decades past, but there's still that association that Vodka = Russia. Of course, you can make vodka anywhere you can ferment something and distill the alcohol, but it is still more associated with places where it's too cold to grow grapes and there's not a strong export demand for the local beers. Monopolowa is an Austrian vodka with a Polish name, which definitely sparks my history interest.

It name means "monopoly" (though here referring to a royal license, like all those British products that carry the crown), and was produced by J. A. Baczewski from 1782 until 1939. The name and recipes were acquired by an Austrian company that still produces this spirit using the traditional recipe. While most vodka these days is made from grain, this is a traditional potato vodka.

I really can't give you any tasting notes here, as I'm not a vodka expert and the best stuff has the least flavor and aroma. I can tell you that it is nicely smooth and mixes beautifully. I've tried it in a number of vodka cocktails where it performed admirably.

I can, however, point out something interesting in the design of the label. There is a very light, almost imperceptible yellow polka dot pattern in the background. It's a circle with the initials JAB and a set of scales. I've adjusted the contrast and levels in the image at right to bring out the design, as always click on the thumbnail for a larger version. Doing such a light yellow design on a white background is a tricky proposition, because A) most people can't see it, especially in non-ideal lighting conditions, and B) those that do see it might just think that the label has gotten dirty or mildewed. The third category, of course, is comprised of those from the printing industry who break out the loupe to see what's going on.

Pyrat XO Reserve

When Paul left town for Mexico and I began a month-long housesitting stay, he gave me a bottle of Pyrat Rum as a gift. Blended and aged on the small island of Anguilla, the component rums come from throughout the Caribbean and spend up to 15 years on French and American oak. This is the product that used to be called Pyrat XO Reserve Planters Rum before the acquisition by Patrón (of tequila fame). Those interested in the differences can read more here. While the bottles are no longer hand blown, they are hand numbered and adorned with decorations. The metal tag around the neck depicts Hotei 布袋, the Buddhist god of contentment and happiness, today associated with bartenders.

This definitely falls under the category of a stinky rum meant for slow sipping, though I don't mean that in a bad way. There's a sort of funky blue cheese/orange peel/earthy aroma that some might find problematic. But if you love the manifold barnyard fragrances that come with good Scotch, then you can appreciate a rum like this. Truly, in the glass it acts much like a Scotch, with a texturally thin, powerful alcohol presence combined with a strong nose and flavor. On the palate, this one has a slightly sweet orange profile with luscious undertones of vanilla and oak. Makes me think of Christmas, and how some cloves and cinnamon would round things out nicely.

Despite the shape and size, this is a full 750 mL bottle modeled after old rum bottles from two hundred years ago. And let's be honest: a badonkadonk bottle like this isn't going to tip over during a storm. One of those tall, skinny, anorexic bottles will fall over if somebody sneezes, but if this one goes on its side, it means that the ship has flipped over and is headed for Davy Jones' locker.