Headed to St. Lucia in a couple weeks for a needed break from the snow shoveling. Any recommendations on some local rums I should look for or particularly avoid?
Also, has anyone done the St. Lucia Distillery tour? Worth a 45 minute cab ride each way?
Rums of St. Lucia
Rums of St. Lucia
Students of the cask, reject naught but water. -Charles Gonoud, Faust Act 2
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Capn Jimbo
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It's only hearsay...
But I've heard the ride is just as interesting as the tour - if we went you can be sure we'd go to experience the amazing tropical setting and views.
Dave Broom shared a few interesing facts: first that the St. Lucians love good rum and as a result, the biggest selling rums there are Barbadian. This may no longer be so, but then again it might. The distillery would normally not be that interesting based on their move to a modern two-column still, but since then thev've apparently discovered the value of a good pot still element and now have two of them: per Broom a Vendome and a really classic pot with two retorts (the classic old Caribbean set-up) by Dore, by gawd.
Broom states that at that time they were experimenting with cane for an intended cane juice rum, and were using 3 different yeasts fof "six marks".
It would seem you'd be able to see and learn a lot from a small facility operating on Island Time and who'd I guess, answer your questions about their three different stills, three different yeasts and their blending. Personally, I'd say go for it... you have my permission to represent yourself as a Rum Project journalist, or idiot...
As you prefer. Have fun!
But I've heard the ride is just as interesting as the tour - if we went you can be sure we'd go to experience the amazing tropical setting and views.
Dave Broom shared a few interesing facts: first that the St. Lucians love good rum and as a result, the biggest selling rums there are Barbadian. This may no longer be so, but then again it might. The distillery would normally not be that interesting based on their move to a modern two-column still, but since then thev've apparently discovered the value of a good pot still element and now have two of them: per Broom a Vendome and a really classic pot with two retorts (the classic old Caribbean set-up) by Dore, by gawd.
Broom states that at that time they were experimenting with cane for an intended cane juice rum, and were using 3 different yeasts fof "six marks".
It would seem you'd be able to see and learn a lot from a small facility operating on Island Time and who'd I guess, answer your questions about their three different stills, three different yeasts and their blending. Personally, I'd say go for it... you have my permission to represent yourself as a Rum Project journalist, or idiot...
As you prefer. Have fun!
Thanks for the quick responses. None of the St. Lucia rums are easy to find in my region of the US.
I have the Chairman's Reserve in my collection, find it to be quite a decent mid-range sipper. I have also previously had the C.R. Spiced and the Castries Peanut Cream, both are very good in their categories.
The Admiral Rodney is definitely on my list to acquire. I was not familiar with the 1931 until Stefan mentioned it, will look for it also. What sort of price points are we talking?
I have the Chairman's Reserve in my collection, find it to be quite a decent mid-range sipper. I have also previously had the C.R. Spiced and the Castries Peanut Cream, both are very good in their categories.
The Admiral Rodney is definitely on my list to acquire. I was not familiar with the 1931 until Stefan mentioned it, will look for it also. What sort of price points are we talking?
Students of the cask, reject naught but water. -Charles Gonoud, Faust Act 2
I like "Chairmans Reserve The Hidden Treasures" a lot better than the ordinary one, and that one is not bad. The story sounds most like marketing bullshit but the rum is good. It's been a while since I tasted it last time but as I remember it, it tastes like the ordinary one that has been aged a few more years in oak. I think you should at least taste it when you are there anyway.
Prices in Europe:
CR Hidden treasures around 30€
Admiral Rodney around 50€
1931 around 60€
This is probably more expensive than in the US or St Lucia but it's the prices I pay when I buy at www.cognac-paradise.de. I am Swedish and we have silly prices on alcohol, the Rodney costs around 120 dollars here so ordering from Germany is a lot better.
Prices in Europe:
CR Hidden treasures around 30€
Admiral Rodney around 50€
1931 around 60€
This is probably more expensive than in the US or St Lucia but it's the prices I pay when I buy at www.cognac-paradise.de. I am Swedish and we have silly prices on alcohol, the Rodney costs around 120 dollars here so ordering from Germany is a lot better.
Yes the forgotten cask is total BS in my opinion. Surely they would run out of that stuff by now and if not the price would be creeping up and up to match the rarity of what's left. Between the USA. Europe and Asia. I would loved to have seen the size of that warehouse because there seems to be a hell of a lot of forgotten cask available. Don't forget that this fire happened in 2007 that makes it a seven year old rum but as far as I'm aware there is no age statement on the bottle. I've seen it advertised for the last two years or so. this must make you think, is it a good seller, a nice rum, how much of this stuff is left it sells in the States and Europe. Don't know about you but, these questions go through my mind.Stefan wrote:I like "Chairmans Reserve The Hidden Treasures" a lot better than the ordinary one, and that one is not bad. The story sounds most like marketing bullshit but the rum is good. It's been a while since I tasted it last time but as I remember it, it tastes like the ordinary one that has been aged a few more years in oak. I think you should at least taste it when you are there anyway.
Prices in Europe:
CR Hidden treasures around 30€
Admiral Rodney around 50€
1931 around 60€
This is probably more expensive than in the US or St Lucia but it's the prices I pay when I buy at www.cognac-paradise.de. I am Swedish and we have silly prices on alcohol, the Rodney costs around 120 dollars here so ordering from Germany is a lot better.
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Capn Jimbo
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. . . . . . .Dai wrote: Yes the forgotten cask is total BS in my opinion. Surely they would run out of that stuff by now and if not the price would be creeping up and up to match the rarity of what's left. Between the USA. Europe and Asia. I would loved to have seen the size of that warehouse because there seems to be a hell of a lot of forgotten cask available. Don't forget that this fire happened in 2007 that makes it a seven year old rum but as far as I'm aware there is no age statement on the bottle. I've seen it advertised for the last two years or so. this must make you think, is it a good seller, a nice rum, how much of this stuff is left it sells in the States and Europe. Don't know about you but, these questions go through my mind.
Brilliant! Personally, although we bought a bottle of Chairman's Reserve we were greatly unimpressed, to the point that a review seemed rather pointless at the time. Dai has posted an excellent and very likely accurate analysis.
Just more snake oil...
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Great graphics, Jimbo. I'm just as cynical as the rest of you hosers. Will be real interesting if I can do a side-by-side comparison of the "normal" and "lost" versions.
As for St. Lucia, We were there once about 15 years ago for one day, during an eastern Caribbean cruise. We did a jungle hike near the Pitons, the undeveloped portion of the island is spectacularly rugged and gorgeous, but the roads absolutely sucked.
More recently, I asked my wife where she would like to spend a week for her 60th birthday. Her immediate response was St. Lucia. So off we go... TR to follow.
As for St. Lucia, We were there once about 15 years ago for one day, during an eastern Caribbean cruise. We did a jungle hike near the Pitons, the undeveloped portion of the island is spectacularly rugged and gorgeous, but the roads absolutely sucked.
More recently, I asked my wife where she would like to spend a week for her 60th birthday. Her immediate response was St. Lucia. So off we go... TR to follow.
Students of the cask, reject naught but water. -Charles Gonoud, Faust Act 2
It would have been better if they had just called it the C. R. XO or C.R. 8yo or however old the hidden treasures might be. Naming it Hidden Treasure and selling it with this fairy tale is a bad mistake, they just lose their credibility. They did it right with the 1931 stating exactly what you get so why couldn't they do the same with their other rums?
I did a side by side test of them a year or so ago and preferred the hidden treasures. It might be that it has a year or two more in oak and that makes the difference. It's been a long time since I tasted them last time, I had forgotten I even had the bottles, so I guess I should try them soon again. I just started my vacation so I will have time enough!
I did a side by side test of them a year or so ago and preferred the hidden treasures. It might be that it has a year or two more in oak and that makes the difference. It's been a long time since I tasted them last time, I had forgotten I even had the bottles, so I guess I should try them soon again. I just started my vacation so I will have time enough!
forgotten about after the fire that seriously damaged the distillery in 2007. Having lost a lot of warehouse space they put the casks wherever they could and finding a parcel of these lost casks they have created this older than usual expression.
It make me think how limited this rum is!
Either that or it doesn't sell very well which makes me think this rum is not all that good.
From St Lucia Distillers site:
On May 2nd 2007 St. Lucia Distillers was struck by a major fire which destroyed our administration and blending facility. Mercifully most of our distillery was spared but we suffered great problems with storage space for our casks. In the melee that followed our cellar master, Mr. Cyril Mangal, was forced to find space for ageing casks in the most unusual places. Having done so the cellar team had a memory lapse and forgot the casks that had been laid down for our award winning rum Chairman's Reserve. These casks were discovered recently and upon tasting were found to contain a wonderfully complex rum which we decided to offer as a limited release.
Brand Positioning: Premium
Blend: A blend of Coffey and pot stills
Maturation: In American white oak casks - Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace - separately by still, then blended and reintroduced to oak for a further 5 years.
This means that the pot still and Column stills were aged seperatly for two years then blended and barreled up for five years.
Sounds like they forgot about these casks for all of five minutes. It's only now a seven year old rum. Last year it was only a six year old rum and so on.
Like I say, I smell a marketing rat!
Chairman’s Reserve:
Maturation: In American oak casks - Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace - separately by still, then blended and reintroduced to oak for a further six months to marry. (Aged 5 years)
The Forgotten Casks:
Maturation: In American white oak casks - Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace - separately by still, then blended and reintroduced to oak for a further 5 years.
It make me think how limited this rum is!
Either that or it doesn't sell very well which makes me think this rum is not all that good.
From St Lucia Distillers site:
On May 2nd 2007 St. Lucia Distillers was struck by a major fire which destroyed our administration and blending facility. Mercifully most of our distillery was spared but we suffered great problems with storage space for our casks. In the melee that followed our cellar master, Mr. Cyril Mangal, was forced to find space for ageing casks in the most unusual places. Having done so the cellar team had a memory lapse and forgot the casks that had been laid down for our award winning rum Chairman's Reserve. These casks were discovered recently and upon tasting were found to contain a wonderfully complex rum which we decided to offer as a limited release.
Brand Positioning: Premium
Blend: A blend of Coffey and pot stills
Maturation: In American white oak casks - Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace - separately by still, then blended and reintroduced to oak for a further 5 years.
This means that the pot still and Column stills were aged seperatly for two years then blended and barreled up for five years.
Sounds like they forgot about these casks for all of five minutes. It's only now a seven year old rum. Last year it was only a six year old rum and so on.
Like I say, I smell a marketing rat!
Chairman’s Reserve:
Maturation: In American oak casks - Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace - separately by still, then blended and reintroduced to oak for a further six months to marry. (Aged 5 years)
The Forgotten Casks:
Maturation: In American white oak casks - Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace - separately by still, then blended and reintroduced to oak for a further 5 years.
I was going to make a new thread but saw there's already one.
Why don't we talk about these more? It would seem according to the Sugar Tests that all the products of the St Lucia Distillers are sugar-free, giving us another reliable fallback for relatively easily accessible pure rums, alongside Barbados, Jamaica (for the most part), and the Agricoles (for the most part).
One shop near me has pretty much the entire range of St Lucian rums - all 8 of the Hamilton offerings, all the Chairman's Reserve Line, Admiral Rodney, and the 1931 brand. the CR, AR, and 1931 even say non chill-filtered, which is very rare in a non-IB spirit. For honestly aged, pure spirits they're VERy reasonable priced - $30ish for the normal CR, $37 for the "Forgotten Casks" (one of which I bought last night), 40-60 for the Hamiltons depending on age and proof, and about that range for the Admiral Rodney and 1931 (which sounds very interesting)
In my very limited research and experience, it seems like the distillery has a versatile multi-still setup capable of producing a wide range of distillates, not dissimilar to DDL, but on a much smaller scale. The very few St Lucian rums I've tried range from very estery and aromatic, borderline Jamaican, to subtle and elegant like a classic Bajan, with some falling in between. It seems that many of the indie bottled StL rums fall on the more aromatic side too.
Has anyone tried the Admiral Rodney or the 1931, or *sshh* any of the Hamilton ones? Or indeed any of the indie ones?
I'm giving up hope of finding reasonably priced pure Guyanan rum in the US, so St Lucian rum might pick up the slack.
Why don't we talk about these more? It would seem according to the Sugar Tests that all the products of the St Lucia Distillers are sugar-free, giving us another reliable fallback for relatively easily accessible pure rums, alongside Barbados, Jamaica (for the most part), and the Agricoles (for the most part).
One shop near me has pretty much the entire range of St Lucian rums - all 8 of the Hamilton offerings, all the Chairman's Reserve Line, Admiral Rodney, and the 1931 brand. the CR, AR, and 1931 even say non chill-filtered, which is very rare in a non-IB spirit. For honestly aged, pure spirits they're VERy reasonable priced - $30ish for the normal CR, $37 for the "Forgotten Casks" (one of which I bought last night), 40-60 for the Hamiltons depending on age and proof, and about that range for the Admiral Rodney and 1931 (which sounds very interesting)
In my very limited research and experience, it seems like the distillery has a versatile multi-still setup capable of producing a wide range of distillates, not dissimilar to DDL, but on a much smaller scale. The very few St Lucian rums I've tried range from very estery and aromatic, borderline Jamaican, to subtle and elegant like a classic Bajan, with some falling in between. It seems that many of the indie bottled StL rums fall on the more aromatic side too.
Has anyone tried the Admiral Rodney or the 1931, or *sshh* any of the Hamilton ones? Or indeed any of the indie ones?
I'm giving up hope of finding reasonably priced pure Guyanan rum in the US, so St Lucian rum might pick up the slack.
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The Fat Rum Pirate
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The rums from St Lucia Distillers for one reason or another don't seem to get much circulation in the US. In Europe the distribution is better. That's probably why we don't hear as much about them.Hassouni wrote:I was going to make a new thread but saw there's already one.
Why don't we talk about these more? It would seem according to the Sugar Tests that all the products of the St Lucia Distillers are sugar-free, giving us another reliable fallback for relatively easily accessible pure rums, alongside Barbados, Jamaica (for the most part), and the Agricoles (for the most part).
One shop near me has pretty much the entire range of St Lucian rums - all 8 of the Hamilton offerings, all the Chairman's Reserve Line, Admiral Rodney, and the 1931 brand. the CR, AR, and 1931 even say non chill-filtered, which is very rare in a non-IB spirit. For honestly aged, pure spirits they're VERy reasonable priced - $30ish for the normal CR, $37 for the "Forgotten Casks" (one of which I bought last night), 40-60 for the Hamiltons depending on age and proof, and about that range for the Admiral Rodney and 1931 (which sounds very interesting)
In my very limited research and experience, it seems like the distillery has a versatile multi-still setup capable of producing a wide range of distillates, not dissimilar to DDL, but on a much smaller scale. The very few St Lucian rums I've tried range from very estery and aromatic, borderline Jamaican, to subtle and elegant like a classic Bajan, with some falling in between. It seems that many of the indie bottled StL rums fall on the more aromatic side too.
Has anyone tried the Admiral Rodney or the 1931, or *sshh* any of the Hamilton ones? Or indeed any of the indie ones?
I'm giving up hope of finding reasonably priced pure Guyanan rum in the US, so St Lucian rum might pick up the slack.
Plus I don't think the company advertises all that much or really makes many waves in the marketing department.
I've yet to have a bad rum from them.
To answer your question I have two of the 1931's the First and Second edition the second shades it from the first but (and I found this surprising as well) I think the Admiral Rodney is best of the bunch. I found the two 1931's (especially the first) to be very slightly unbalanced and not quite as good as I had expected.
Likewise the Chairman's Forgotten Casks really isn't much better than the standard Chairmans. The White is very good though. Spiced is best avoided unless you love Cinnamon
I'm going to St. Lucia for a week and a half in December this year. I'll be hitting up the distillery also as where I'm staying is about 15 min away.
The St. Lucia products are not to be seen in this part of NY not even the standard chairman's products. I have had to get all St Lucia rum out of state.
The St. Lucia products are not to be seen in this part of NY not even the standard chairman's products. I have had to get all St Lucia rum out of state.