Charring Dept: Mount Gay goes black...

[Capn Jimbo]

They say once you go black, you never turn back, lol...


I personally can vouch for this, as did our founder Thomas Jefferson.


Mount Gay recently released their new “Black Barrel” a NAS (no age statement) rum whose claim to fame is that it is finished in charred bourbon barrels. Listen to the marketing:

"The latest from Master Blender Allen Smith, Black Barrel is a small batch, handcrafted blend made of matured double pot distillates and aged column distillates. In a process called finishing, the blended rum is then matured for a second time in deeply charred Bourbon oak barrels. This unique process releases spicy aromas that are at once balanced, and bold."

The truth: NAS means a younger blend – Mount Gay is using the charred oak to compensate for lack of real aging (the same technique used by Phil Prichard). This is effective for Prichard, whose pot stilling and superior food grade molasses compensates with the flavor lost to the charcoal filtering. I’m not convinced this will work for Mount Gay, whose product is still largely column stilled and whose molasses is of a lesser grade. The tipoffs are these:

1. Aroma: "Complex notes of spice, toasted wood" (primary)

2. Taste: "Bold spice balanced by oaky vanilla and sweet caramel"

Let me try to explain. One of the great myths is that of "small barrel aging". The ADI wants its suckers, er customers, to believe that you can buy one of their modified and very expensive Carl stills and then magically condense 7 or 8 years of aging into 3 or 4 months? No way. This is simply not true. What you can do is to quickly take the edge off via the charring (think Jack Daniels), but at the price of LOSS of flavor and or excessive wood and "spices". Mount Gay is calling that "bold". The "sweet caramel" is a byproduct of the toasted wood sugars just below the char level and now accessible.

What you do get is smoothing and simplicity: lots - maybe too much - of wood, and caramel, but little else. I have some doubts about their vanilla claim, but as a love of Mount Gay, we are forced to review this one. MG's "trick" is to "finish" the rum in charred oak - so they can make the claim - but not so much that it overpowers the likely young juice.

It is not accidental that this possible ploy is happening now.


Bottom Line

I believe this is a compensation and a Hail Mary attempted pass to fight the predictable onslaught of the USVI subsidies. A younger NAS rum made modestly palatable through charcoal treatment. A shame, really... btw, their marketing department created a label designed to look hand numbered in a wild attempt to have us believe the small batch sales pitch...

"In recognition of its anniversary, new packaging will be introduced to the entire Mount Gay portfolio of premium rums. Black Barrel continues the brand's growth in the U.S. retailing for $29.99, and is the first rum to adorn the new packaging."

Mount Gay's first major mistake was walking away from 300 years of history and tradition and dumping their classic bottle and labeling. This attempt to correct the error only makes it worse. Ughhh...

[Dai]

If what you say is correct (I have no reason to say otherwise) then it begins the down grading of rum to compete with the big boy's. What we will see over the next few years is more and more cheaply produced rum from the real rum producers and at the same time the increase of prices of the quality rum as it finds it harder to maintain it's market share. This market share gets eroded at an accelerated rate through less rum being bought and increased prices forcing more and more people to buy less and less of it.

Pop Quiz:
Where have we seen this happen before.

Answer:
Your local high street. every small producer or shop keeper forced out of business through predatory practices of the multinationals.

It's coming to the rum world folks!

[JaRiMi]

To my knowledge, all Bourbon is made in a cask that has not contained any other spirit or wine or beverage before. This is due of course to the once-active coopers' union, that lobbied such laws in place in USA.

As the cask has never contained anything but air, it needs treatment for the inside, in order to work well with spirit. Quoting American distilling institute from http://www.distilling.com/PDF/chapter4.pdf :

" In the United States a full-depth charring of barrels (i.e., 1/8 inch) used to age American straight whiskey is predicated by law. This is in spite of the fact that over-charring can actually destroy some of the flavors that are needed to develop the finish of the spirit. This is why toasting, or even a light char, may be a better route, but it is illegal in the United States to age straight whiskies, such as bourbon, in anything but fully-charred barrels. A medium-depth char is required just to crack the wood, and a heavier char burns up wood compounds that would only be caramelized by a low- or medium-level char.

Charred barrels produce a deeper colored spirit (temperature is also a contributor) and there is a greater production of esters.

It has been found that the more delicate-flavored spirits like malt whiskey, Canadian whisky, and rum are overpowered by the oak contribution of new charred barrels, so these spirits are aged in once-used bourbon barrels."

Now, reading the statement from Mount Gay, it would seem that they finish a blend of pot still & column still rums in this type of an un-used bourbon barrel. [Optionally it is a used one, which has been re-charred - also used]. I have tasted malt whiskies from "New wood" and from "Alligator charred wood". [Wood cask terms are used loosely and most confusingly in the whisky business, to ensure consumers do not know exactly what to think of ]

Resulting spirit was very mature for its age, but also contained some strong flavours that the cask had yielded to the spirit. So the "maturity" comes with a distinct fingerprint, so to say.

Heavy charring removes off-notes (not unlike charcoal filtering), but also gives a burnt note. The caramelized layer underneath contains lignin, which in turn imparts vanilla notes (very prominent in bourbon). Hemicellulose donates also wood sugars.

I think Captain you are correct in saying that this is an attempt to make younger spirit taste older / mature faster to a palatable taste. Having said that, Mount Gay has never used much age statements, but I have felt that in recent times XO has for example received less of the older rums (which probably now go to the 1703) than in the good ole days of the past.

Oh well - at least their idea of using a wood finish is acceptable in my books - instead of, say, starting to fill tanks with added flavourings in secret.. Interested to know how this tastes. Bottle design is not much to my taste though.

[sailor22]

As I read the label it doesn't clearly say weather the finishing is in new or used cooperage. It could even be used barrels that have been re-charred. A not uncommon practice.

However it's finished and to whatever extent it is flavor infused to my palate it's a delicious, light and dangerously drinkable dram that sits on the fence between sipper and mixer. I found it much like Cruzan single barrel, Matuzalem and Zafra in style and mouth feel.

In many ways it's a typical middle of the road sweet, nutty, vanilla rich Rum with a few extra wood notes. Not terribly complex but probably well suited to any number of cocktails and an easy sipper. As always YMMV.

I saw it priced at $23 in two stores last week and that seemed fair.

Looking on the bright side - it's not a me too cocktail in a bottle .....er.....spiced Rum but balances some traditional Rum notes very well. As such it might be something of a gateway pour for beginners who are interested in exploring Rum beyond the heavily flavor added offerings.

[Dai]

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-19011.aspx

Is this the same stuff?




*******
Capn's Log: No. This is the Eclipse Black, which was discontinued. The Eclipse Black was 100 proof, with a signficant pot still element, and sold here for about $19 - for a liter! We reviewed it here: http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=484. To be fair I've yet to taste the new Black Barrel, but I know this: when you replace age, pot stilling, volume and proof with lesser amounts of each, it can't be good...

[Capn Jimbo]

Ouch, ouch and OUCH!!!


Good grief. Ever since Black Barrel was announced I've had my eye open for it. We are forced to buy one and compare it to the Eclipse Black, especially after shooting off my idiotic mouth with my speculations. It started to appear just a week or two ago but until yesterday I hadn't seen one. Finally, we did: at an amazing $29 at Total Wine for gawds sake!

And this for a rum that I'll bet doesn't come close to the Eclipse Black, which sold for just $19 and which had more volume (full liter), higher proof (100), perhaps more age, and more of a pot still element. To charge more for the Barrel for less, less, less and less is simply outrageous.

For as much as we are bound to review it - NOT for $29. We will simply have to wait until our famous Indian run small chains sell it for much less, say $23.


Bottom Line...

The USVI subsidies are beginning to pinch, and I'd guess this is just the first of many de-balled new products and/or the modification of other existing blends to contain ever less of the good stuff. Shame, really