New Rum by Richard Seale: The Real McCoy

[jankdc]

Inspired by Bill McCoy, the legendary rum runner who set the standard for quality, honesty and reliability among his nefarious peers during the dark days of American prohibition, the Real McCoy Spirits corporation of Mystic, Connecticut today announced their Real McCoy rum -- an authentic, boutique crafted spirit of genuine character.

Bailey Pryor researched, developed and produced a documentary about the Real McCoy of the roaring twenties for PBS. His feature film script has been purchased by Universal Studios and Bailey is going to the Oscars to celebrate the overwhelming interest his documentary has generated.

During the process of documenting the life and legend of William McCoy, Bailey became inspired to develop a cane spirit worthy of the man who set the standards of high quality during the golden era of rum runners. He contracted another legendary figure in the rum world, Richard Seale of Four Square distillery in Barbados, to craft an authentic rum blend that would have made Bill McCoy proud. Full article with pictures and links.

[Hassouni]

I tried the 12 at a bar - very interesting. Not very Bajan tasting at all. It almost reminded me of ED12, if the latter had no sugar added. That being said, the RM12 was not nearly as dry as the Seale's 10 - stylistically within the Foursquare range, I'd place it closer to Doorly's. It's also pretty dark, which to me suggests a final aging in freshly charred barrels perhaps? It pretty loudly proclaims "Aged in American Oak" on the label.

To be quite honest though, I'd probably take the Seale's 10 over it if given the option. The Real McCoy, while very nice and an honest product, lacks a bit of the other's elegance and refinement.

[Mrspragoo]

I walked into a liquor store last week and there was a table set up offering tastings of all 3 real mccoys, clear (3 year maybe I forget) 5, and ,12.
I started with the 12, then tried the 5 and finished with the clear.
I found the 5 year to be the smoothest, and it had a nice finish that reminded me of Seales 10. Over all I think with further tasting I would likely call the 5 year a nice addition to my tasting shelf.
The 12 year I found to nice, but had a bit more astringency than the 5, and fell into what I would call my mixers category. Nice but not really a sipper.
The clear, well its a young clear rum. Quite a bit of burn pretty much all the way through the yasting.
Please keep in mind this was just a very quick sip at the liquor store on a hot day.

[Capn Jimbo]

It always occurs to me that these independent buyers/bottlers are not likely to ever get the distiller's best stuff. Let's face it, the distillers know that these "ideas" come and go, but they'll be around. And no matter what, why should they allow some other label to sell their best?

[mamajuana]

These rums are actually bottled by foursquare distillery and state that on the bottle giving them a much higher weight as being great products. Though different somewhat from their other products very good stuff.

I personally highly recommend the 3 year white rum. It's one of the best straight white rums on my long list. Very Bajan in style and one of the few white rums from Barbados that still has this quality. I personally find the rum very authentic and smooth an easy straight drinker.

That being said I think that this goes further than what stocks are used. The real McCoy line is a product available nationally you can buy it everywhere that you can't buy Doorly's. The difference mainly is the price point. The McCoy line is substantially higher in cost than the Doorly's products. This in my mind was a move to sell some of their products at a premium that added some back story.

Same aged products all produced, aged, and bottled at the same facility with a 50% premium. You can't buy any Doorly's or 10 year Seale in NY but McCoy is all over.

You can buy a 1.75L bottle of 5 year Doorly's at total wine for 24.99 but a 750ML of McCoy 5 year is 25+ dollars... Maybe we need to support the owners that "created" this rum as well as the actual production costs and expected returns.

It's just like the Binny's new Bacardi 10-20 (aged longer with no added sugar according to their rep) year selling for 19.99 but the Bacardi Limitada available all over is 99.99.

There seems to be a major pricing issue in rum for similar rum.

[Dai]

The McCoy 12 is nice stuff I had some at the rumfest last year and I was impressed with it.