Rum-flavored Malt

[John von Pey]

Hello all,

I just received an advertisement leaflet from a national Dutch liquerstore chain Gall & Gall (Gall & Gall website. In that leaflet they advertise with Glengoyne Rum Finish 10 years old (it is their malt of the month).

In the accompanying text they promote the Glengoyne distillery, and tell us this rum-finish version is even more remarkable. It has been in bourbon-casks for 9 years and as "finishing touch" in old rumcasks for a year.

Quote: the result is a delicate rumtone in both smell as well as taste. Delicious, but be fast, only 3000 bottles have been made"

Product information (Dutch)

[Ed Hamilton]

That is very interesting considering that most rums have spent some years aging in whiskey barrels. Looks like someone is looking to jump on the rum wagon and recognizes that rum isn't just a cheap product produced by giant distillers.

[Markus Lewalski]

Hi John,

I wouldn't expect too much from these rum finished Whiskies. It remains a whisky. I have a bottle of the Glenfiddich Havana Reserve (21 yo Glenfiddich finished also in rum casks). It's not bad at all but it's really hard to find out any rum flavours in this whisky. And there are many rum finished whiskies out there and from what I heard from whisky drinkers the rum is often not even noticeable.

So if you like whisky it might be worth a try (even though 10 years is quite young for a whisky).

But if you expect a fully rum flavoured whisky forget it.

Cheers

Markus

[Mickeman]

The whisky distillery Glenmorangie started the trend with different "finishes", and since it sell very good other distilleries have followed.

Although I haven’t tasted any rum finished malts the ones I have tasted have more or less influence on the whisky depending on the character of the malt and the character of the fluid that’s been previously stored in the cask and of course the length of the finish.

The Lagavulin double matured for example have a very noticeable note of cherry sweetness and dates in it, but then it is stored in casks that have had matured Pedro Ximenez sherry an extremely sweet and heavy sherry.

It wouldn’t surprise me if in a couple of years we will se whisky that’s either double matured in rum casks or matured entirely in rum casks.