Fog rolls in over Yaquina Bay, and the smell of salt water hangs in the air around the old shipyard buildings on the waterfront in Newport. Here, where Oregon's coast meets the Pacific, the casks stand and breathe with the tide. And a few miles inland the hazelnuts ripen in the Willamette Valley.
Expert description
Rogue Hazelnut Spice Oregon Rum USA is an American Spiced Rum aged in Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey casks and bottled at 40%.
The rum comes from Rogue Spirits in Newport, Oregon, which opened the state's first rum distillery. Rogue is best known as a brewery, and it shows in the way they work. The distillate is made in 567-litre "grundies" from Hawaiian cane sugar, champagne yeast and coastal water. Each batch is double distilled, and the distillate is then filtered through charcoal by hand.
Then the rum goes into cask. Rogue uses its own spent Dead Guy Whiskey casks, which mature out by the bay, where salt air and shifting temperatures work on the wood. That is the ageing that gives the finish its bourbon-like, dry character.
The spicing is the other half of the story. Rogue adds roasted hazelnuts from Kirk Family Filberts, a family-run farm neighbouring Rogue Farms in the Wigrich Appellation, along with orange peel, Madagascar bourbon vanilla pod, cinnamon and cloves. The nuts are roasted before they go in, which is why the sweetness in the glass tastes of toasted nut rather than nut liqueur.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Toasted hazelnut straight away. Behind it lies brown sugar, a touch of orange peel and a warm scent of cinnamon.
Palate
Medium-bodied and soft. Vanilla, cinnamon and cloves roll into one another, while the nut stays in the background throughout.
Finish
Dries out towards oak and vanilla with a bourbon-like pull from the cask. Short to medium.
Specifications
Name: Rogue Hazelnut Spice Oregon Rum USA 75 CL 40%
Distillery: Rogue Spirits
Region/Country: Oregon USA
Type: Spiced Rum
ABV: 40%
Size: 75 CL
Cask type: Dead Guy Whiskey casks
Distillation method: Double distilled
Serving suggestion: Neat over ice or in coffee and cocktails
Flavour Profile
Nutty · Spiced · Sweet · Vanilla-forward · Cask-driven
Did You Know?
The name Dead Guy comes from a Día de los Muertos poster Rogue made for their Maierbock in the early 1990s. The skeleton became so popular that it ended up naming both a beer and later a whiskey - and thereby also the casks behind this rum.
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