Rum Review: Sergeant (Sgt) Classick Gold Rum

The second standard reference style: aromatic, robust and full flavored - it's absolutely dunderful. To our ships at sea! May they sink very slowly!
Post Reply

How do you rate Sergeant (Sgt) Classick Gold Rum (five is best)?

5
0
No votes
4
0
No votes
3
1
100%
2
0
No votes
1
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 1

User avatar
Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Posts: 3550
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
Contact:

Rum Review: Sergeant (Sgt) Classick Gold Rum

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Sergeant (Sgt) Classick Gold Rum: Sour Mash

Sue Sea and I have been down with a touch of a virus. After 3 days of this, cabin fever drove me out of the house anyway; I ended up checking a couple of my rum stops and was pleasantly surprised to find a very rare bottle of Sgt. Classick at $19.95. Inasmuch as SC has received a double gold at the SFO competition -and - a 94, "best buy" from BTI, this purchase was a no brainer.

Attractive too was Sgt Classick's promotion as a California micro-distillery using a pot still to produce rum from Hawaiian molasses. The timing was also propitious as I'd recently reviewed Charbay Tropical Island Cane Rum (a cane juice rum) - yet another California family distiller, also producing rum via pot still with cane juice syrup imported from, yup, Hawaii.

There are some important differences, however...

1. SC is molasses based, Charbay is a cane juice rum.

2. SC is distilled via a single pass through a modified pot still process with the vapor passing through an "analyzer" column for what amounts to a second distillation or reflux. Charbay is the result of a true pot still process and is triple distilled.

3. SC is distress aged for only a very short time using oak chips. Charbay uses expensive French Limosin oak barrels for aging.

4. SC stands for Sgt. (Dave) Classick, a Vietnam veteran who settled in Hawaii, and fell in love with rum. His love led him to establish a micro distillery in California. His team consists of himself, his son Dave Jr. and owner Andrea Mirenda - all experienced high tech employees with backgrounds in information technology, sales/marketing and process engineering.

Think Steve Wozniak sponsors the US Festival rock and roll extravaganzas.

5. Charbay is a family run business with a long history of distillation reaching back multiple generations. Their products are truly artisan. They continue to use time and labor intensive techniques developed quite literally over these generations.

The question:

Can a relatively new distiller - using a modified pot still process with an included secondary "analyzer" column process, producing an unaged rum in a single run - match a rum produced by an artisan family utilizing a classic pot still with three separate distillations, and who use authentic French Limosin Oak?

........... 3 days later ................


Welcome back rum lovers. Although I'd had a taste or two of Sergeant Classick, a real tasting is not complete until dear Sue Sea lays her mind and tongue to it. That day was last night. Earlier in the day Sue Sea's waiter son I did an informal tasting. He's an experienced waiter with much wine experience, and is turning out to be quite a rum taster as well. I'll include his impressions as well.

Enough, this review is way too long already...

Sue Sea:
Hi all! I've not been at my best, but Sergeant Classick is the kind of rum that no ordinary cold can disguise. Classick comes in a tall, narrowed shapely bottle, slightly pinched near the base and with the indented bottom that I like. As a Floridian, I'm a sucker too for the tall coconut palm on the unusual textured paper label. A nice change from sailing ships and high seas piracy. Simple and understated. Unlike the rum.

My first nosing of this rum was not pleasant. Pungent sour moldy cork, with a strong alcohol prickle. High nosing is usually the answer to such pungent rums, but not in this case. Descriptors like sauerkraut and chemical come to mind, all over a tarry oakum and a bit of reedy oak, a faint honey sweetness and a far distant hint of vanilla. But overall think harsh and rancid notes.

Sergeant Classick's early palate presents surprisingly smooth and sweet, but this is all too fleeting. This was quickly replaced by a growing, sour dry astringency and heat, leading to a black peppery and chestwarming finish and aftertaste - all unfortunately consistent with the aroma. Some aftertastes of rums are quite pleasant, but a few rums make me reach for a palate clearing sip of cool water. I regret that this was one.

I really hesitate giving a rum a lower score, as I work very hard to keep my personal preferences out of it. But as a molasses rum I can't recommend this rum. It simply does not fit my expected molasses profile, though it may appeal to whiskey or cane juice rum afficianados. And it is not a rum I'd present to a new rum drinker.

Please allow me to put it this way - I don't like whiskey or strong alcohol spirits, compared to the molasses based rums that I much prefer. Unfortunately, for me Sergeant Classick is more like the former.
Me:

Let me start by saying I had high hopes and anticipation for Sgt. Classick's gold rum. Despite the fact that I distrust commercially influenced "competitions", BTI is a resource that is more difficult to ignore. I have repeatedly tasted it alone, with Sue Sea's waiter son and of course, with Sue Sea. And always again I as post these findings.

Sergeant Classick color was a slightly cloudy golden with minimal, with late legs. It presented first with a sour moldy cork, over a tarry leather, background. A bit of honey and with much airing, a bare hint of vanilla. On reflection I find what I can only describe as a raw, edgy oak. Some very deep spice notes.

As for taste, Classick opens really quite beautifully, sweet and smooth. The sweetness slides into a smooth growing pepperiness, for an astringent leathery, hot black pepper finish that glides into a glowing white pepper aftertaste. Chest warming. Sue Sea's son Brian concurred and found the Sgt. smooth, hot and easy to drink.

Sergeant Classick was a very difficult rum to both taste and rate. I have to agree with Sue Sea that the pungent, sour and even harsh aroma was hard to get past. It colored my entire experience. And few, few molasses rums have presented this way. Classick did not fit my expected profile. Still, it did present some remarkable smooth sweetness in the palate, though finishing very hot (something we like).

I believe this is a rum that may - may - become an acquired taste for some. But I believe most molasses-based rum drinkers will prefer a more traditional profile. This is not to say this is a poorly made rum, or that it lacks quality. But it must be rated with a view to the profiles of molasses rums generally available, and in consideration of expectations for this class.

I am caused to speculate as to Classick's unusual profile. It is reported to be a very young rum, in fact not aged at all! The distiller has used what others call "distress aging" - a brief use of oak wood chips for color, some quick oak notes, and to hopefully round some of the harsh edges of a new spirit. But no quick dunk can be expected to replace years of expensive and careful aging in oak. What you likely get are oak additives, some substractives but relatively few interactives.

This technique is normally restricted to home distillers who lack either time or money for barrel aging. It is also an occasional and controversial technique used in the wine industry.

This, plus some possible heads and tails elements (normally smoothed or removed by real aging) may account for the sour and musty edginess we experienced. Our tasting differed from the few reviews I have seen. My bottle may have been an aberration, or this small distiller has not yet achieved consistency. Or the rum that was supplied to the competition or BTI was not what was in our bottle - or - that as an unaged gold rum, it was rated more for its mixing qualities. Classick may be trying to replace years of expensive aging with his special still and distilling process, distress aging and filtration techniques - for which he gives Ed Hamilton some credit.

In sum, an unaged and unusual rum that needs more time, and consideration. Now for the magic question: should you buy a bottle? I say absolutely yes, if only for your rum education regarding heads and tails, and the importance of aging.

And you may just like it...

Ratings (10 is best): Sue Sea - 4, Jimbo - 5
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Posts: 3550
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
Contact:

A note about distilling...

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Heads you lose, tails you still lose...

Sergeant (Sgt) Classick was so unusual that I just had to further consider its profile. I believe its sour/musty character may have to do with the distillation process and also with the (lack of) aging.

Classick uses a still called a "Stupfler" - an alambic copper still system. As described by Jean Louis Stupfler, this proprietary system is composed first of what appears to be a pot still boiler. The vapors produced then pass through a column from the bottom up, Stupfler's self-named "analyzer" column. From here the vapor passes through a typical, water-cooled condenser. Classick's version adds a pre-heater.

Stupfler makes much of the notion that his device can produce "spirits of the finest quality and with substantial economy of time, energy and water... in a single distillation" and with little need for aging! Quite a claim. He distinguishes his "analyzer" column from more typical columns in that his device operates without the levels/plates common to those.

Would it only be so.

Columns with plates cause the vapor to rise through holes in ever higher plates, with some condensation at each level - this to achieve ever increasing purity at each level. Some of these columns allow fractions of distillate to be collected at different levels - desired fractions can kept and or blended as desired.

Stupfler states his analyzer works - without plates - by minute control of cooling, allowing the "controlled partial condensation" of the vapor. Call it what you will, this is a form of reflux. A certain percentage of the vapor condenses and is redistilled - repeatedly.

On another website I noted that Classick, Jr. (the distiller) was questioned about this, as this unit is used to produce both clear and brown spirits. In the former, say vodka, the objective is purity and lack of flavor, which normally requires substantial reflux (redistillation). In the latter, say rum, more flavors are desired and less reflux - if any - is wanted. The questioner wanted to know how this was achieved with the same still.

Apparently this is the secret part.

Now the common pot still in many ways is much easier to control in the hands of a skilled artisan. You start it, discard the foreshots and some/most of the heads (to eliminate methanol and ethyl acetate - the solvent smell and taste). The hearts are collected and small amounts, as desired of the tails. Too much and you get fusel oils - rancid and offensive. Pot stills tend to include more flavor, but I repeat, only in the hands of a skilled artisan.

Classick's Stupfler is an unknown quantity. Reflux columns can be difficult to control and there are always time lags between coolant adjustment and product changes at the exit. Compare to a true pot still, where cuts are made simply by nosing and tasting the exit at intervals, and discarding or keeping exactly what is wanted.

Too much of the heads and you end up with ethyl acetate - with its solvent like, chemical aroma. Even at best, it doesn't take much pungent ethyl acetate to affect the product. Just (0.0005%) is detectable by humans. This is why pot stillers do multiple distillations.

Run over into the tails and you end up with a different problem - unwanted "fusel oils", with their notably rancid or moldy smell. And I'm not referring to "rancio" - an aroma held in favor and that is the result of very, very long aging (eg 20 years). To the contrary, the rancid aroma noted in our tasting is well known to distillers. Fusel oils are rarely desired.

To make matters more complicated, the cut points are never clear.

Bottom line:

Heads you lose, and tails you still lose. Or rather, your rum may...

Other than redistillation, two other factors can save and/or greatly improve a distillate. Time and oak aging. In time the ethyl acetate will revert to acetic acid, still sour but less offensive. Time in oak has additive effects donated by the oak - like vanillan and tannins; subtractive effects - like absorption of some nasties; and interactive effects - the oak and rum interact in ways not fully understood and create new esters, aromas and flavors.

But Classick does not age his rum. His product is that of a single column run, period. No redistillation. It is not aged for any real time in oak barrels. Instead, he does a quick dunk of oak chips to gain some color and oak flavors, but little else. There is no time for real development, smoothing and marrying of flavors that only occur over longer aging in oak barrels.

His product is dependent on precision and accuracy in a process that often is unpredictable from run to run. And neither Stupfler the manufacturer nor Classick the distiller (and also American sales rep for Stupfler) will fully and openly describe how this one-of-a-kind design works.

It's a secret. I wonder how they sell it.

But the product isn't. I detect what I consider strong heads' and tails' components - sour, musty, chemical and rancid tones. I detect harsh oak that hasn't had much time to mellow. I note an unaged rum that has picked up color due to a quick distress application of oak chips. Are all of these intentional? Or are some of these due to the still design and limits, control factors or lack of experience? I feel obligated to extend the benefit of the doubt, and assume that its profile was entirely intentional.

But of course it's impossible to say.

In any case, it was surprising good for an unaged rum. That it was reasonably sippable is remarkable. And I am sure there will be a contingent of rum drinkers who will really like its heads and tails up attitude. To be fair to Classick, as a new distiller his rum appears to be a work in progress. I found a post in which he admits as much - which credits Ed Hamilton for changes in the filtration process, and notes that "we made some radical alterations in our oak profile".

I'd guess the changes and improvements will continue, and personally, I'd love to try a well aged version...


*******

One final note: I do take a bit of issue with the distiller's claim that this rum is "pot distilled" - a bit of a stretch, particularly in view of the use of their "analyzer" column. The claim that the rum is "The Spirit of Hawaii" - based only on the use of Hawaiian molasses - is misleading and has been challenged on the net. Actually the opposite of WIRSPA, who claims that it's perfectly OK to make "authentic Caribbean rums" using molasses from anywhere. Including Hawaii, lol.

Sergeant Classick Gold Rum, "The Spirit of Hawaii" is only distilled in California (as is Charbay). According to WIRSPA, that must make it an "authentic American rum". Yeah, yeah, that's it...
NCyankee
Admiral
Posts: 232
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2010 1:52 am

Post by NCyankee »

I had the opportunity to taste this at a friend's house last weekend. Am I crazy or does it have a taste profile somewhat similar to Sea Wynde? I especially noticed that odd burnt-rubber aftertaste that prevents me from fully loving Sea Wynde - though it is considerably more noticeable here than in Sea Wynde, where it is more of a fleeting thing.
Post Reply