What we’re drinking: Mount Gay Master Blender Collection “The Cognac Cask Expression”
Where it’s from: Located in Barbados, Mount Gay is the world’s oldest-running rum distillery. This is the eighth release in the distillery’s limited-edition Master Blender Collection. As Master Blender Trudiann Branker notes, the collection is a “once-a-year project where you get to see our innovation side.”
Why we’re drinking this: We’re fans of previous editions, including last year’s Coffey Still Expression and 2021’s Andean Oak Expression. This time, Branker and her team wanted to see how ex-Cognac casks would affect their rum. With that in mind, they aged their column-still rum entirely in French oak casks sourced from House of Rémy Martin.
While Mount Gay had some experience working with ex-Cognac casks before with its XO release, this marks the first time the distillery has exclusively aged its rum in ex-Cognac casks. “I wanted to see what that delicate vanilla note you get from the French oak would do when paired with our column-distilled rum,” Branker says.
Review: Mount Gay Embraces a Unique Distillation
The iconic rum brand foregoes the traditional pot still for its latest Master Blender releaseIt sounds simple enough, but there were challenges. “We’re in this very tropical climate where we’re not necessarily accustomed to much French oak to manipulate with regards to our maturation,” Branker says. “The barrels came, and they weren’t all the same height. They’re a different size from the traditional 200-liter American oak barrels we use. And these barrels have lived a really long time lying down in their aging process, while we mature vertically.”
As Branker explained, the rum in these barrels is accessing a different surface area than the cask’s previous contents. “We had to learn what that meant by ourselves,” she adds. These were not learnings they could give us.”
In the end, Mount Gay went with a surprisingly young four-year-old rum (the youngest in the Master Blender Collection). Let’s check it out.
How it tastes: Aged four years and coming in at 58% ABV, this release is non-chill filtered and additive-free. There’s plenty of orange zest and vanilla on the nose, followed on the palate by hints of salted caramel, vanilla, oak spice and citrus. A nice dryness on the finish lends to an overall complex and delicious profile.
Fun fact: Mount Gay is the focus of the second episode of a new documentary series called Drink: A Look Inside the Glass (you can find it on Apple TV and Prime). The episode begins with the discovery of one of the world’s oldest bottles of rum (produced by Mount Gay centuries ago) and also offers a behind-the-scenes tour of rum production at the distillery.
Where to buy: Only 6,276 bottles are available worldwide, priced at $210 for a 700mL bottle.
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