This article first appeared in the Drinks International Rum Supplement which can be read in full here
In a category famed for its breadth of production methods, not to mention places of origin, rum producers are still finding new ways to push the envelope, whether it’s through the use of new techniques, unusual casks, or revisiting the spirit’s raw materials. Here are some of the sector’s most pioneering recent releases.
In 2023, Dominican rum brand Brugal unveiled the first edition of its Colección Visionaria. It introduced a process that the brand claimed was unique, in which oak casks were toasted with cacao beans. The beans were removed before the casks were filled, while the influence of the toasting remained. This release was followed by Edición 02, this time with the casks toasted using Dominican Arabica coffee.
“Our passion and pioneering spirit allows us to off er unique rums that challenge category conventions with innovative cask toasting techniques,” says Brugal’s maestro ronera, Jassil Villanueva Quintana, who developed the technique. “We believe that with this series Brugal is playing its part in raising the profile of Dominican rum, fostering greater innovation that is helping to inspire and attract new consumers into the rum category.”
Also bringing coffee into the equation recently, in a more overt way, is Venezuela’s Santa Teresa. To create its new Santa Teresa Arabica Coffee Cask Finish, cold-brew coffee made from premium Arabica coffee beans and four-year-old rum was aged in American white casks. These were then used to finish the brand’s Santa Teresa 1796 expression for three months.
“Developing this unique process in-house posed the challenge of balancing the coffee’s bold intensity with the rum’s natural flavour profile,” says North America brand director Edwin Hincapie, adding that the result is well suited to cocktails like the Carajillo and Espresso Martini, as well as for sipping neat.
The release, Hincapie says, was informed by trends in the spirits industry, particularly the rise of coffee-based cocktails.
“We’re definitely seeing a surge in innovation across the rum category, and this is likely to continue as consumer interest in unique styles and new flavour experiences grows,” adds Hincapie.
“In the US especially, rum enthusiasts are increasingly drawn to rums that bring something distinctive to the table, whether through unique ageing processes, bold flavour combinations, or a story that reflects heritage and craftsmanship.”
Cask influence
On the subject of unique ageing processes, English rum producer Drop Works recently turned its attention to what the cask was made from, rather than focus on its former contents. The result was the creation of what founding director Lewis Hayes calls “a world-first rum barrel”, with the cask’s head and body made from two different types of wood. “We envisioned that the Portuguese oak would impart raisin notes, with the American oak bringing the ice cream… cue tasting notes of rum and raisin ice cream.”
It’s just one of the casks used to age the Nottinghamshire distillery’s latest release, Barrel Drop, matured for just 12 months. “This quick turnaround demonstrates how Drop Works operates, and we will continue to push boundaries to bring rums that are complex, layered and downright delicious,” says Hayes.
The pioneering approach at Drop Works extends beyond its cask programme too, including the use of an exclusive yeast for fermentation, as well as copper stills that are, according to Hayes, the largest of their kind in Europe.
The latest release from multi-country blend Black Tot, meanwhile, makes use of the solera system traditional in Spain, in which ageing occurs across multiple tiers. Black Tot Historic Solera Rum starts out as the brand’s Finest Caribbean, a blend of rums from Guyana, Barbados and Jamaica, which is then aged for an average of two years in first-fill oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry butts.
“Sherry casks of today are very different to those of 15 or 20 years ago, giving you big flavours that are, for me, sometimes not integrated enough,” says founder Sukhinder Singh. “We got to a point after two years where we had what we needed, but wanted to mellow those flavours out.”
The traditional solera system offers a number of benefits. “There’s some maturation, but more mellowing, bringing flavours together, reducing those heavy oak notes and also giving us long-term consistency,” Singh adds. “You’re always taking a part out, and putting fresher liquid into the old liquid, so it integrates and marries slowly over time.”
Others, meanwhile, are making use of casks from different spirits categories when creating new rum expressions. Master blender Joy Spence describes the creation of Appleton Estate 8 Year Old Double Cask as a milestone for the distillery, its first cask-finish release. After eight years of ageing, the rum was finished in casks that previously held 18-year-old Speyside single malt whisky.
“The idea was born from my own personal love of single malt whisky, as I’ve always seen clear parallels between the making of single malts and premium aged rums,” says Spence, who describes an encounter with an 18-year-old Speyside single malt, many years ago at a spirits event in the UK, that planted the seed for this release.
Practically, the timing was challenging, she says, given the need to coordinate the emptying and shipping of the 60 casks from Scotland across the Atlantic to Jamaica. “It took several years to get the logistics and timing just right, but eventually the magic became a reality.”
Expect more interesting releases from Appleton. “We are always exploring ways to innovate, and we’re fortunate to have an incredible inventory of ageing rums that allows us to do so,” says Spence. “We’ve certainly had a few exciting ideas as we’ve worked on this release.”
For Goslings in Bermuda, a recent release involved not only the use of former rye whiskey barrels, but also a multi-year blending process. The brand’s Family Reserve Old Rum, introduced in 2003, takes the same blend as flagship Goslings Black Seal Rum and ages it for at least 16 years in once-used bourbon barrels. For this latest release, the first extension to Family Reserve, a quantity of this rum was transferred every year, at the eight-year mark, into former rye casks for a further eight years. The final product, Goslings Family Reserve Old Rum Rye Barrel Finish, combines multiple years, namely 2018, 2019, and 2020.
“We found that this multi-year blend perfectly balanced the subtle rye whiskey notes with the rum’s unique character, enhancing the flavour without overwhelming it,” says vice-president Malcom Gosling Jr.
“With the super-premium segment of the rum category experiencing rapid growth, we’re seeing more innovation than ever before in cask finishes, ageing methods and blending techniques,” adds Gosling. “We remain committed to exploring each of these areas.”
Peachy outcome
The use of Sauternes casks to mature whisky isn’t exactly new, but using one to age some Isle of Man-distilled rum has proven to be inspired, resulting in Outlier Distilling Company’s Millions Of Peaches Three Year Old Manx Rum.
“Up until the end of 2023 it smelled incredible but was quite aggressive on the palate,” says co-founder Ian Warborn-Jones. “An awful lot of this business is being bloody-minded and backing yourself, because we were pretty sure this one was going to be a write-off…”
Warborn-Jones is working on a sequel that will be “similar but different”, expected to be available in late 2025, as well as releasing a limited-edition Christmas pudding liqueur entitled Jingle Berries for this year’s festive season.
There’s more to rum innovation than casks, of course. Grenada’s Renegade Rum is evidence of this, starting with its initial unaged releases, each made from a single field of cane, either pot or small-batch column distilled. These were followed by aged expressions. The latest from Renegade now brings blending into the picture, starting with Single Farm Cuvées, and leading to Cuvée Nova. A permanent addition to the range, it blends different terroirs, farms and distillation methods. There’s also an unaged version, Cuvée Aura, aimed at mixing.
“These are full-on rums – real cane flavour, expressed at their fullest,” says head of brand for Renegade Mark Newton. “It is our belief that there can be no real provenance from those ubiquitous sources of molasses, and therefore certainly no terroir, which is our specific interest, which is why we focus on cane only.”
Another producer placing greater emphasis on cane is India’s Radico Khaitan. For its new Kohinoor Reserve Indian Dark Rum, only fresh cane juice from the north Indian winter season is used. To tie this further to its place of origin, the rum is matured in American oak casks previously used for maturing Indian single malt, before some time in former cognac and vermouth casks.
“Provenance is becoming increasingly important, not only in rum but in all other spirits as well,” says Sanjeev Banga, president of international business at Radico Khaitan. “To make a mark, brand owners need to constantly innovate and experiment with raw materials, processes, casks and more, to offer something unique.”
