New Cadenhead's Bottling

[mrmaltster]

Hello, all -

Just a quick recommendation for anyone interested in caskstrength rums. Cadenhead's just released a Barbados "BRS (Rockley)" from the Blackrock Distillery. It's a pot still 16 y.o. bottled in 2003 at 67.7% abv. I picked up a bottle last weekend and have only tried it once so far, both with and without a bit of water, and it's very impressive, indeed. What particularly stood out was a very refreshing, almost minty note on the finish. More tasting notes as I become more familiar with it.

Cheers,

Jay

[ctgm]

I am not sure that I really like cask strength rums. I know that it is its purest expression and that you can add water, but I find that the de-mieralised water used to reduce in strength tastes a lot better than "tap" water. (I also prefer my rum/whisky non-chill filtered).

I remember bottling a rum and it was at 75.6% (before reduction to 46%) which brought back frightening memories of Bacardi 151!!

Edited September 4, 2003 by ctgm (log)

[ctgm]

Out of interest (and I should possibly know) why is rum generally stronger than whisky (Scotch). the strongest cask strength whiskies that I have come across have never been in the 70% range when a lot of rums are more than this.

Is it that rum starts from a higher strength? Also with the angels share being so much higher with rum I presume that it looses strength much quicker than whisky.

[scheer]

It is often the case that column still rums are layed down for aging. This means that the initilal strength could be as high as ± 95.5 %. Than losing some strenght during the aging period.

Fresh Pot still rums usually come at ± 80-87% out of the still.

Also waiting for an answer of a real whisky connaisseur!

Ed

[Alberto]

Hi Ed and all.

Malt whisky comes out from the spirit still at +/- 70% abv, but of course it varies upon how wide is the "cut". Auchentoshan (Lowland) is triple distilled and reaches 86% abv., I presume Bushmills too.

Both malt and grain whisky (+/- 94% out of the Coffey still) are then reduced at about 63,5% before barrelling; that's judged the optimal strength for aging in Scotland and Ireland, I think that they do the same for american whiskeys, don't know in other parts of the World.

In past decades they commonly did not reduced the spirit prior to put it into cask, so old CS malts if aged in a very dry micro-climate can well get over 65% abv. Same for old rums, maybe.

Cheers,

Alberto

[mrmaltster]

To ctqm -

I'm just the opposite - I prefer the caskstrength rums, partly because of the "purest expression" aspect you mentioned, but mainly because I can experiment; more water, less water, or....if I'm in the mood....straight up. Not to say I don't like rums bottled at "drinking" strength, but caskstrength just give me more variety, and I'm careful to use only bottled spring water for diluting.

Cheers,

Jay