What we’re drinking: Mount Gay Single Estate Series 25_04_Vt19dp
Where it’s from: Mount Gay is the world’s oldest running rum distillery. Established in 1703, it’s located on the northernmost tip of Barbados. Their rum is distilled in traditional double copper pot and copper column stills and aged in a diverse selection of casks. And it’s all looked after by Master Blender Trudiann Branker, the first female master blender in Barbados.
Why we’re drinking this: This is the fourth edition of Mount Gay’s Single Estate Series, which we’ve been a fan of since the launch (if you’re wondering about the odd name for the Single Estate release, read our “Fun fact” below). Some backstory: In 2015, Mount Gay acquired 324 acres of the Mount Gay and Oxford Estates, allowing the company to harvest estate-grown sugar cane each year for these special releases.
Mount Gay Embraces a New Profile in Its Latest Master Blender Expression
The new limited-edition bottle from Mount Gay is a youthful, column-stilled rum that’s aged exclusively in ex-Cognac casksThese terroir-driven releases are produced from one year of harvest, this latest expression being 2019, which is also the year Mount Gay started integrating regenerative agriculture practices.
“We really started this journey in 2015, and over the last 10 years, what we’ve been able to do is vertically integrate the entire process of single estate,” Branker says. “What does that really mean? It means the House of Mount Gay produces every or has its fingerprint on every step of the [rum-making] process.” (As a fan of single-estate tequilas and whiskeys, I was also interested in how the concept applied to rum.)
25_04 is a blend of two pot still distillations combined into one expression, matured for five years in American oak ex-bourbon barrels. Let’s have a sip.
How it tastes: Bottled at 55% ABV, 25_04 is non-chill filtered. This release pretty much encapsulates the best of Mount Gay. There’s a grassiness here, some apple on the nose, plenty of vanilla and butterscotch, hints of pear and cherry, a nice bit of charred oak and even a little salinity.
Fun fact: So about that name 25_04_Vt19dp, which admittedly does not roll off the tongue. As Branker notes in a press release, “25 representing for the release year, 04 for the release number in the series. Vt19 refers to the single-year sugar cane harvest from 2019 used in this expression, and dp stands for the blending of distillates from two distinct pot still distillations.”
Where to buy: Only 2,754 bottles of 25_04 are available worldwide, with a $350 MSRP.
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