Mt. Gay Master Blender Allen Smith
People don't believe me when I swear this is my job, but recently I took a quick inventory of my "to be reviewed" liquor shelf and noticed that I had a backlog of five rums that I needed to taste through. So, being the hard-working spirits writer that I am, I cinched up my liver and put on my drinking cap.
I'll tell you right off the bat that my favorite of the five is also the most expensive, so I apologize for having a high-end palate if you choose to follow my advice. I might have been a bit prejudiced since I had already tried Mount Gay Black Barrel Small Batch Rum at a private tasting with the distillery's master blender, Allen Smith, last month during Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Mount Gay has been making pure sugar cane rum on the same hilltop drawing water from the same well in Barbados since 1703, and has been a favorite of the sailing set for generations.
To celebrate their 310th birthday, Mount Gay set out to create a very special product. All of their rums are distilled in single and double copper pot stills and then aged in toasted oak barrels that have previously been used by American whiskey and bourbon makers. For their new Black Barrel product, they charged Allen to develop something really unique. He selected a high percentage of their double-distilled rums and blended it with some of their best single pass rum to create a very clean tasting product.
After being aged in their regular casks, Mt. Gay moved this small batch rum into some heavily charred barrels for finishing. The result is a bold, caramel/honey-colored rum that has leeched extremely spicy notes of vanilla and wood from the barrels. On the nose, heavy whiskey notes come through along with a nice spicy nuttiness. A peppery flavor, almost like rye, makes Mount Gay Black Barrel a wonderful ingredient in cocktails, and a Manhattan made substituting rum for the usual rye or bourbon is a wonderful change of pace.
What I really liked was that instead of creating a spiced rum the traditional way by adding spices like cinnamon, rosemary or pepper directly to the distillate, Mount Gay accomplishes it through contact with oak. I enjoy it up, chilled in a snifter in place of my normal evening whiskey. Although Mount Gay Black Barrel was specifically created to commemorate a special anniversary, they plan for this to be a regular release going forward. Look for it in Nashville's finer liquor stores for around $30.
