Almost a year after Devon Trevathan and Colton Weinstein of Liba Spirits, Chad Newton of You Are Here Hospitality and Mavericks frontman Raul Malo released their first batch of Trovador Silver Rum, the creative quartet has come out with a new hit with their Double Barrel Aged Rum.
Starting out with essentially the same base spirits as their Silver Rum — a blend of Cuban-style, Dominican and Mexican distillates — Trovador has taken it to the next level by aging their rum in new American oak barrels. Lots of rums are aged in used American whiskey barrels, stealing sweetness and color from any leftover bourbon they can leech from the oak, but Trovador's use of new oak leads to a much more refined result.
Rather than slapping his name on an existing rum, The Mavericks frontman is building his brand from the ground up
The rum definitely extracts color from the barrel, and the pepper and dried fruit notes are from the wood, not any leftover whiskey. There are definitely hints of vanilla and caramel from the toast and char of the cask, plus some lingering sweetness that draws out the expected molasses from the rum.
Unlike their Silver Rum, Trovado does not charcoal filter the Double Barrel Aged Rum, leaving a bolder character and a luscious mouthfeel to the 86-proof product. Don't confuse this with a dark rum where the loose regulations of the rum world allow for added sweeteners and caramel coloring. This is a Latin product aged using traditional American methods.
The rum enters the barrel at 140 proof to maximize the extraction of color and flavor, and then the distillers let the rum tell them the proper bottling proof. When they sampled it at 43 percent ABV, there was unanimous consent to bottle at that proof.
Trovador has seen good pickup for their Silver product, and they expect a larger statewide rollout for this new rum early next year. If you can't find it yet at your local store, ask them about it or pick up a bottle online — it's worth the hunt.
