Admiral Rodney HMS Formidable

Dark golden amber in colour. The bouquet shows honeycomb, prune, cigar leaf, piney oak and spice (cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper) with tar chocolate ice-cream and vanilla, a warming Christmas and pepper spice. The palate brings Maple syrup-like richness balances wood tannins rather than sweetening (this is a dry rum) with honeycomb, cacao, red wine, caramel and vanilla. Cacao butter, dry oak, vinous spiritous notes and nutmeg spice. Very faint smokiness. Spicy and oaky - perhaps a tad too woody. Oak tannins are balanced by some maple syrup, caramel, vanilla and honeycomb richness on the finish.

The Admiral Rodney line of rums is named for a British admiral (George Rodney) who took part in the Battle of the Saintes in 1782, a pivotal naval engagement between the British and French. Each of the three expressions in this line fittingly take their name from one of Rodney’s ships: Princessa, Royal Oak and Formidable, with ascending age statements. The column still at St. Lucia Distillers is a traditional twin column Coffey still commissioned in 1985. Admiral Rodney rums have the fingerprint of Saint Lucian rum, which is a rum character unparalleled to any other fine-aged rum. The rich flavour profile is undoubtedly from the brilliance of extracting pure rum on lower plates in the rectifier column. These are heavier bodied rums than most column distilled rums and benefit greatly from extended periods of aging in oak casks, allowing the rum to fully evolve into Saint Lucia’s most prized liquid treasure.