A trip to the US and more ramblings about rum

It's been an eventful few weeks, including a trip to the States. We had a chance to visit J up in Grand Rapids which is about a 7 hour drive away. 

We loaded up the Jeep and I got some podcasts on the go. I'm particularly enjoying The Creative Penn about writing and self-publishing at the moment, and as D likes true crime, I did some digging about to see what I could find and came across one called Drunk Women Solving Crime which we enjoyed. Coincidentally, the first episode we listened to featured a somewhat gruesome murder that happened just outside my home town in 1930!

It was great to see J and her family, and to meet Penny the cat for the first time. Here she is keeping watch over a bottle of Cuvee Josephine which J had saved in my honour. 

 

Some epic wines were consumed over the course the weekend, including a trio of Corton supplied by me, which had been biding their time over at D's house. I was delighted they had all survived. The 2013 white from Maison en Belles Lies was particularly wonderful, and it was lovely to have it again as I probably drank my penultimate bottle over here back in 2020. The Americans mostly preferred Anne Parent's 2008 red over the Maison Romane 2009, which was useful intel for future reference. I suspect the Maison Romane may have been a bit wild for their tastes whereas the Parent was perhaps more polished.

Eagle eyes may notice that there was also a bottle of Delamotte 2002 and a half of Suduiraut 2001 in the mix. The Suduiraut was a really great bottle which reminded me how much they vary, but when they're good, they're exceptional.

J also shared some treasures from her spirits collection, which is quite something!

We returned home via East Harbor State Park in Ohio, on the edge of Lake Erie. Sadly this time there were no raccoons in evidence, but there were thousands of fireflies which was a magical new experience for me. 

The following weekend D and I had time for a quick backpacking trip to the Laurel Highlands. As the weather forecast was a little dicey, we booked a shelter as well as a tent spot. The camp sites have 5 or 6 of these shelters, space for tents, and bathrooms. A snake was sunning itself outside the ladies, but it was small and relatively sweet so I didn't freak out too much.

Anyway, on to the rum. Before my trip, the Baron and I attended a rum tasting at the WSET in Southwark which was very interesting. I hadn't previously been aware of the difference between column stilled and pot stilled rums, but it seems that column stills produce higher strength rum with less space for flavour, so they end up being very neutral and smooth. This is your typical white rum, good for mojitos or daiquiris. Not really what I'm after. 

We started off with one of these from Cuba, then had a rum from Haiti made from sugar cane, which was much more aromatic. The guy giving the class told us that the technology in Haiti is quite rudimentary so they're producing artisanal rums which might well be the next big thing. 

Then it was on to some rums more of the style that interests me. The Real McCoy 5 year old is a mix of column still and pot still, and had a lot more going on. I brought a bottle back from Pennsylvania where it was $30 as opposed to the £44 which it costs in the UK. To be honest, it's been fine but not super exciting. It's from Barbados and those rums tend to be a little on the light side for me. I'm glad I didn't spend £44 on it. 

Back at the tasting, we then tried something from St Lucia which reminded me of wood polish, and then some Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve from Jamaica. The guy told us that Jamaican rum often has "high ester" fruity flavours as there's a lot of yeast and bacteria involved. Others detected banana and tropical fruits while I got yet more of the varnish thing that I'm not mad about.

Finally, we tried some Ron Zacapa Centenario from Guatemala, which comes in a glamorous looking bottle and costs £105 over here. Ron Zacapa is part of Diageo, and they're clearly going for the luxury drinks market with this. It's made by the solera method, had a lot of toffee and caramel, and was very smooth. Just a little corporate for my tastes!

The overall conclusion was that rum is very good value compared to other spirits, and the other thing I learned is that you shouldn't swirl it in your glass as that releases the ethanol and makes it more volatile. 

Armed with all this new knowledge, I picked up a bottle of El Dorado 12 year old which is widely available at around the £37 mark. I liked it more than the Real McCoy 5 year old, as it had a bit more going on, but it's still not particularly complex or exciting and I wouldn't bother to buy it again. 

Unlike this bottle which G brought back from his holidays. This is Venezuelan rum from La Maison Du Rhum, which internet research tells me is actually made by Diplomatico. It's quite light and fruity, with a lot of coconut on the nose, and really interesting. Sadly it appears to be unavailable in the UK. G tells me that I like rums from South America, and looking at my Berry Bros experiences over the past couple of years, I think he might be right, so my next project will be to explore the Diplomatico range. 

Iceland, rum and Calvados

It's feeling distinctly autumnal in London, which is fine by me!

At the risk of sounding like a seven year old writing an essay on What I Did On My Hols, it was wonderful to meet up with D in Iceland for a few days at the start of the month after the best part of 8 months apart. We had a great time, rented a car (the advantage of knowing someone who can drive on the right hand side of the road) and visited some spectacular waterfalls and the volcano which erupted recently.

After a windy climb up quite a big hill, we were a little disappointed not to see any red hot lava, but maybe it was just as well.

I was relieved that there were plenty of restaurants in Reykjavik and no need to eat anything weird like sheep's head or rotten shark. In fact, the food at the places we went to was very good, while lunch normally consisted of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some trail mix from D's giant bag of the stuff. I didn't drink anything particularly exciting in restaurants, but brought a stash of wine from home in order to keep costs down as booze was quite expensive there.

Just a few days before our trip, the UK announced that it was letting people from the US visit, which was a little bit annoying as we needn't have gone to Iceland after all, but I'm still glad we did. And it means that we'll get to see other D soon as he's coming over in a few weeks. I'd better get some of the good stuff out of storage!

Meanwhile, back at AduV Towers, I decided to continue the rum project from last year, and got hold of these three from Berry Bros - a 12 year old from Panama, 13 year old from Belize and 16 year old from St Lucia. 

The Panama we considered to be fresh, with tropical fruit - a bit of banana, papaya and coconut, and no sign of rubber. We thought it was well-made lightweight rum. 

The one from Belize had a slightly more intense nose, with honey and ginger, and a note of orange peel on the mid palate. It was weightier, but still a light style. 

Finally, St Lucia was a noticeably paler colour than the other two, and was on the fiery side. As with the notorious Guyana from last year, it reminded me of an Islay whisky, not really what I'm looking for when I buy a bottle of rum. G thought that the barrel had overwhelmed the fruit. 

I was a little disappointed in all three, to be honest, as and none of them was as enjoyable as last year's Nicaraguan or Barbados. But c'est la vie! Of the three, the Belize was my favourite. 

G has been encouraging me to instigate a Calvados Project, and eventually I got round to making a start on this. He considers Calvados to be quite undiscovered and I doubt that me writing about it will do much to change that. Here we have three which all came in around the £50 mark. Two from Michel Huard - Vieux and Hors d'Age, and an 8 year old from Roger Groult.

Beginning with the Vieux, this was a nice gold colour with splendid legs and a really appley nose. G found it a bit petrolly and said it needed more time open. I hadn't previously realised that Calvados could be bottle sick, but apparently it benefits from some air. There was heat at the front, and then the apples appeared later. It reminded us of the apple cake we had at the brown cafe in the antiques centre in the Jordaan in Amsterdam, probably 20 years ago. 

The Hors d'Age was slightly darker and sharper, with heat on the finish rather than the front and rounded fruit in the middle. It had a wonderful finish and was probably worth the extra three quid.

Finally, the 8 year old was darker again and fried my nostrils, but on the palate it was smoother and more restrained with some interesting flavours. G described it as aristocratic, while I thought it was positively medieval with hints of quince, liquorice root and maybe even cloves. Fascinating stuff.

I was interested to discover that for me, a little Calvados goes a long way. I'm very capable of putting away a considerable quantity of rum or bourbon, but here I wasn't tempted to guzzle - somehow it demands slow appreciation and makes a really wonderful digestif. I look forward to adding to my collection in due course and heading up the scale. And if my lottery ticket ever comes up, I'd be very tempted by the 2 litre bottle of Roger Groult 1939 which is currently for sale...

2020 almost over

And so we approach the end of the year, and thank god for that!

I have some good news to report - D made it over for a few days in early December at long last. We holed up in Cornwall in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere with a log fire, and generally had a lovely time. It was perfect timing between lockdowns and am currently back at AduV Towers where I have spent my first solitary Christmas. Fortunately G was around beforehand to assist with dispatching some items on our wine racks.   

This Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot 2013 from Domaine de la Choupette was the platonic ideal of Chassagne. It was a beautiful pale straw colour and very well-balanced and harmonious with a lovely weight. G detected white stone fruit while for me it was citrussy all the way through. It had been carefully selected by G in a year that was "a little unfocused" for whites.

And it went very well with Bradenham ham and parmesan crisps!

I'd decided it was time to put this Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2011 from Domaine Odoul-Coquard out of its misery and we had high expectations. We weren't disappointed! It was wonderfully dark and glossy and initially we were reminded of black forest gateau but then amended it to sachertorte, although there was certainly some black cherry action. Rich and powerful with fabulous ripe fruit, it did the business and reminded us how much we loved the 2011s. 

I'd made it over to the Ginger Pig and La Fromagerie, and was quite proud of my cheeseboard consisting of Beaufort, Stitchelton and a crottin, to which G added some other evil goaty thing as he likes to do. (Still no sign of the Odyssey de Chevre companion blog...)

With it being the festive season, a half of Suduiraut 2001 seemed appropriate. There was some issue with a crumbly cork which led to G decanting it into a claret glass, which showed off its colour very nicely. It was absolutely lovely, with a massive amount of botrytis. I said something about apricot jam which G corrected to Elvas apricot jam, and it had wonderful glycerin and a peach note on the finish. It went much better with amaretti morbidi than it did with the cheese. We had a debate about whether it's on its plateau yet or not. G thinks it will improve so I mustn't rush to drink the rest.

We finished off with a Battle of the Elderly Spirits! 

G brought along this Vieux Calvados Domfrontais 1972.

While a few weeks ago, I procured this Caroni 1997 rum from BBR.

It was quite amusing to see how similar in colour they were, but on the nose there was no trouble telling which was which. The Calva was fragrant with notes of pear - G informed me that it's actually made from 2/3 pear and 1/3 apple, which either I never knew or had forgotten. I found it quite fiery and quite dry, and wouldn't have guessed that it was almost 50 years old. 

The Caroni is quite fascinating. At 60.4% alcohol it certainly needs to be cut with water, and on the nose it has some rubber tyre and a strong liquorice thing going on. I've been enjoying it but it was very pricey and not something I'll be rushing to buy again. Still have over half a bottle left, which is almost a whole bottle once water is added. And no regrets - this year has been so miserable that a few self-indulgences were in order.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and hoping that all our lives get back to normal asap in 2021!

Rum diary

Oh dear, it's been a long time since my previous entry. Hope everyone is doing ok. It's been an unsettling time at AduV Towers. 

I had formulated careful plans for my lovely American fiancee to visit me in the UK this week which wouldn't have been easy, with the complicated and inhumane quarantine rules, but I'd found a way of doing it which I considered reasonable and legitimate. Then the second lockdown was announced in the most incompetent way imaginable and all my careful plans had to be cancelled. I'm now hoping she can come over in December but the way this government behaves makes it very difficult to predict what might happen. At least there are now vaccines on the horizon and the prospect of a return to some kind of normality next year. 

In the first lockdown, instead of learning how to bake sourdough bread and/or reading War and Peace, I taught myself how to play poker. I've wanted to learn this for a long time and consider it a useful addition to my skill set. In the second lockdown, some more adult education: I'm learning about rum. 

I'd been feeling irritated for a while that decent bourbon in the UK is so expensive. My house bourbon was alternating between Bulleit and Eagle Rare depending on which one was on special offer, and I enjoy them both, but then I went and spoiled myself with things like Koval and the Big B and it's hard to go back. 

I was reminded of rum by this wine label which G gave me a long time ago and it brought to mind the question why did I not have something suitable for it to be decorating? Clearly this sad state of affairs needed to be rectified immediately. G told me that he'd recently had some BBR Jamaican 14 year old rum and had been impressed. Apparently BBR had (maybe still have? not sure) some guy who went round the distilleries and picked the good stuff. Admittedly I haven't explored the world of the major rum producers (yet...) but I get the impression that the BBR bottlings are quite a steal. 

I whizzed onto the Whisky Exchange website as I needed to buy some Stoli Vanil for a certain beloved person who at the time I thought would be visiting me soon. I know everyone thinks it's hilarious that I'm about to get married to a woman whose drink of choice is vanilla vodka and Diet Coke but I only see positives in this! She does also drink margaritas, mojitos and Amaretto and ginger beer, so we'll establish a comprehensive cocktail cabinet when I move over there.

It turned out that if I bought the Nicaraguan 13 year old, as opposed to the Jamaican 14 year old, for a whole extra pound more, I would meet the much sought after threshold of free delivery. Incidentally, the offerings on BBR's own site and those at the Whisky Exchange overlap but have some differences. 

The Nicaraguan 13 year old costs £76.95 and I consider it well worth it. Caramel and toffee on the nose, creamy with a very spicy, hot finish - hot in the culinary sense. Ginger. A hint of dried tropical fruit. I wonder if I might think it was a bourbon if I didn't know it was a rum, and so we're back to G's theory that certain spirits trend towards the same flavour profiles after a period of time. This is especially delicious with some Lindt Excellence of the dark sea salt variety. 

Having whetted my appetite, I subsequently indulged in further items from the range. 

Barbados 13 year old. £86.95 from the Whisky Exchange (as opposed to £95 from BBR). A little more restrained on the nose, perhaps even floral. Definitely drier on the palate, more subtle. Complex and sophisticated. Again, creamy flavours and glace cherry. Harmonious. From Foursquare, which a little bird tells me is a rather good distillery. Not sure its worth £19 more than the Nicaraguan though, to be honest. 

Guyana 14 year old - £90 from BBR. According to their website this is from 2003 so is now actually 17 years old. Interesting to see how pale it is compared to the others. My initial reaction was that it wasn't my cup of tea at all - I found it offputtingly medicinal on the nose. Second time around, I worked out that it's more like a Scotch, and if I approach it that way I can appreciate it more. It has a certain iodiny, herbaceous quality which leads me to suspect that G may like it more than me. On revisiting the BBR website I see that it has received one 2 star review, so clearly I'm not the only one, and it could explain why they still have it. But if you like Highland Scotch, it might be worth a look. 

These rums all come in at 46% but they're a little pricey to be everyday drinkers, so I investigated further and discovered that BBR also do a more basic range. I acquired a bottle of the Nicaraguan from that range at a mere £30. It was perfectly acceptable but frankly not very interesting. I think it would be fine in cocktails, but it wasn't really a "sipping rum".

The Whisky Exchange then tempted me with something called Black Tot at £35 on special offer, generally around the £40 mark elsewhere. Again, it's 46% and I'm getting all the flavours I enjoy - molasses, toasted pineapple, ginger... it's very fruity and aromatic and unmistakably a rum. Compared to the others, it's perhaps a little obvious, but hey it's half the price. It packs a punch, it's enjoyable and doesn't break the bank. I've stocked up! 

Lunch at mine, 11th May

And so normal service tentatively resumes.

I arrived back in London after a weekend away a couple of weeks ago, very much looking forward to having lunch with G and D who was over for one of his biannual visits. I wasn't disappointed.

We kicked off with a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Folatieres 2008 from Domaine Bzikot, provided by G. This continues to be a great example of the genre and is drinking perfectly now. We had a bottle back in March when G voiced doubts, but he seems to be converted now.

Then it was on to the main event. D had informed us that he'd be bringing "a couple of reds". It turned out that he meant two different vintages of Chateau Lafite. I couldn't believe it!

In particular, a bottle of 1966 and a bottle of 1975. It would have been a privilege to drink either, let alone both!

We started with the 1975 which was drinking extremely well. It was very smooth and the tannins had softened. The finish was amazing and I got some heat which I eventually worked out reminded me of black pepper. There were also notes of liquorice, chocolate and leather. It was supple and complex, not majestic like Latour, but more feminine.

The 1966 had a more classic "claretty" nose - that cedar, lead pencil, cigar box thing going on. Again it was very smooth and was more classic all round. G thought it was richer than the 1975 and to me it felt like there was more cabernet sauvignon in the mix. Again, it had a great structure and finish. We loved the $29.95 price tag. Those were the days...

Here you can see the difference in the colour - the 1975 is on the right and the 1966 on the left.

If we had to choose between them, I have to admit the 1966 was my favourite, but it has a price differential to match. It was great to be able to compare them and both went very nicely with G's shepherd's pie.

With our cheese course, we had a bottle of 6 puttonyos Tokaji from 1996. This had a heady nose of dried apricots and figs, and extraordinary exotic, tropical fruits on the palate - pineapple and mango. It had a lovely gloopy mouthfeel. I enjoyed it very much.

Finally, we had some of G's latest acquisition, some old navy rum in a terrible wicker basket! My shoes are included in the photo to show the scale of the thing.

This rum dates back to the 1950s and has acquired the smooth characteristics of an old spirit, but is nevertheless immediately identifiable as rum. Like whisky, it benefits from the addition of a little water. An animated conversation ensued about the possibility of doing an old spirits tasting, which is a great idea.

Lunch lasted 6 hours, a new record, I think. Thanks very much to D for providing such amazing goodies from his cellar, and to G for the others and for doing the cooking.