Renegade Rum Pre Cask Dunfermline Column Still 50%
High up in the St. Andrews mountains on the island's north-eastern coast lies Dunfermline, once a glorious distillery that was sadly lost in 2004 to Hurricane Ivan and wind speeds of up to 270 km/h. The estate's clay soil has been favourable to sugar cane cultivation for centuries. This rum uses the Lacalome Red cane from Skean's field, known on the terroir as Mango Lane. So we are right down at cane and field level here. This rum is also produced in a pot still version: same terroir, same cane, harvested and fermented at the same time, but distilled on a pot still instead of a column. Seriously geeky and seriously good. I love it.
Colour:
Clear.
Nose:
Lovely green, floral, grassy notes hit the nose. Hay, tomato shoots, fat green oily juicy salted olives. This smells very healthy.
Palate:
The rum tastes more complex than you would expect from a column rum. Grapefruit, blood orange, unripe honeydew melon, salt and white pepper.
Renegade Rum Pre Cask Pearls Pot Still 50%
On the coastal plain, a stone's throw south of the distillery, there is an interesting terroir between mangrove and water meadow with a distinctive volcanic, mineral and iron-rich subsoil. The cane grows vigorously in this very water-retentive ground, where the clay helps hold the moisture. This rum uses the Yellow Lady variety from the field called Grapefruit, standing on the terroir known as Flats.
Colour:
Clear.
Nose:
A competent nose fills this glass. For a pot still rum it is restrained, though. This is not a heavy distillate. There are subtle grassy notes, green unripe bananas, smoked paprika and a little sap from fresh green spruce shoots.
Palate:
The rum is distilled on a classic double retort pot still, and if you have tasted much Jamaican rum you know what that kit can do. But remember that here it is the purest, freshest cane juice rather than molasses, with much shorter fermentation times than on Jamaica and absolutely no dunder or muck.
It is not often you taste rum combining pure cane juice with a double retort pot still. It is rather lovely. Fine, clean, complex without being violent. A very good glass. Flavour-wise we are still around the fresh, the floral and the green. There is a nice sharpness to the rum, a little white pepper, samphire and a touch of star anise at the end. It finishes dry.
I can warmly recommend Renegade Rum. It is interesting. It is geeky. It is well made. And it is affordable. Beyond the two I have tasted today there are several more in the Renegade Pre Cask Rum series to explore. Renegade Pre Cask Rum is also excellent in drinks and cocktails, by the way. Enjoy!
