Barbados has a reputation as the well dressed one among the Caribbean rum islands. Clean lines, dry wood, no tricks. Three Danes found a single cask at W.I.R.D., left it eighteen extra months on oloroso and set a bottle of raw distillate beside it, so you can see for yourself what the wood changed.
The expert's description
Rum4u Barbados W.I.R.D. Gift Set w. Miniature Single Cask Rum 5+50 cl 60.5% is a gift set holding a Single Cask Rum from Barbados finished in an ex-Oloroso cask and bottled at cask strength, 60.5%, alongside a miniature of unaged distillate from the same source at 60%.
The set contains Rum4u Barbados W.I.R.D. 2022 Single Cask Rum 50 cl 60.5% and Rum4u Barbados W.I.R.D. Miniature Unaged Distillate 5 cl 60%. The small bottle is the spirit straight off the still, without an hour in wood. The large bottle is that same spirit after maturation, the final 18 months of it in a used oloroso sherry cask. Two glasses, one starting point, and a very direct answer to what wood and time actually do.
The rum comes from West Indies Rum Distillery at Brighton, just north of Bridgetown on Barbados. The distillery runs both pot stills and columns and supplies a long list of independent bottlers around the world, which is why W.I.R.D. turns up far more often as distillate than as a brand of its own.
Rum4u is a Danish rum importer run by Lasse, Kim and Brian, who hunt down single casks and bottle them under their own name, preferably at full cask strength with nothing taken off. This cask carries the number 4.1-22 and yielded 63 bottles. Once the cask is dry, no more of exactly this rum will appear.
Tasting notes
Nose
The miniature is sharp and green with cane juice, olive and a faint whiff of glue. The matured rum stands somewhere else entirely: dried figs, walnut, orange peel and a dark, nutty tone from the sherry cask, with 60.5% sitting behind it all as warmth.
Palate
Dry and broad shouldered. Oloroso lays raisin and walnut shell beneath the banana and coconut of the Barbados spirit, and the cask strength drives everything forward. A few drops of water open it up into dark marmalade, cinnamon and bitter oak.
Finish
Long, dry and peppery. Walnut hangs on longest, and a faint saline edge arrives at the end, the kind you know from proper oloroso. Go back to the miniature afterwards and it tastes almost raw by comparison.
Specifications
Name: Rum4u Barbados W.I.R.D. Gift Set w. Miniature Single Cask Rum 5+50 cl 60.5%
Distillery: West Indies Rum Distillery
Bottler: Rum4u
Region/Country: Barbados
Type: Single Cask Rum
ABV: 60.5% and 60%
Size: 5 + 50 CL
Cask type: Ex-Oloroso cask, Cask No. 4.1-22
Number of bottles: 63
Edition: 2022 Gift Set with Miniature
EAN no.: 5782001254888
Flavour profile
Dry · Sherry matured · Nutty · Cask strength · Spiced
Investment potential
Medium. The cask gave 63 bottles, the release is a Single Cask at cask strength from a distillery that rarely appears under its own name, and sets that preserve the unaged distillate next to the matured rum cannot be rebuilt once the cask is empty.
Did you know?
West Indies Rum Distillery was founded in 1893, making it older than most rum houses people can name. Maison Ferrand of France has owned the site since 2017, and several of the early twentieth century columns are still in service.
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