Oops, this is a day late. This was the 17th advent calendar rum and today's the 18th! I feel like I didn't do my homework. Have a read anyway and please don't give me detention.
Bit of an into
This is another rum from another place I've never heard of: Suriname. It's a country in South America right next to Guyana and is a former Dutch colony. That probably gives some clues about what the rum might be like, but I couldn't tell you what. Possibly not made from sugar cane juice like the French styles seem to be, but not sure about that. It was tricky to find the producer's website because the Borgoe brand is owned by Suriname Alcoholic Beverages NV and the website's name is sabrum.com and not anything to do with Borgoe. They don't give a great deal of information about the rum on the website. They say:
"Borgoe 12 is a blend of carefully selected rums, blended to perfection and aged in authentic oak barrels.
In creating this impressive rum, our Master Blender was inspired by the iconic flavors of the remaining aged rums in the Borgoe Reserve Collection, resulting in a blend of unparalleled intensity.
This world class reserve rum was introduced on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Suriname Alcoholic Beverages NV on November 17, 2016."
From that we've got that it's a blend of rums aged in oak barrels. It was inspired by their other rums, is intense and was introduced to their product line in 2016. Not much to go on there. The website mentions that they use a copper pot still which is a good sign. I couldn't find it on the SAB NV website, or the website for the rum distillery, which incidentally is called Surinaamsch Rumhuis, but I've read elsewhere that they assemble the casks they use for maturing the rum on site at the distillery. Assemble them from what though? Don't know. I would assume American oak ex-bourbon casks since they would be cheapest to buy and transport. They would often be dismantled to fit more into the space on a truck or whatever they use to transport them and then reassembled. That's what happens in the scotch industry anyway, I assume it's something similar here.
Not much more information to give you here because I don't know much more about it. Aged 12 years in oak, and bottles at 40% ABV. From everything I've found out I'm expecting something mellow but flavoursome, with notes of vanilla from the oak and maybe toffee, caramel, molasses type things because I'm assuming this is made with sugar cane honey or molasses because it's not from a former French colony and looks darker than the sugar cane juice rums I've had. We'll have to see about the complexity. A few days ago I would have said I wasn't expecting much due to the bottling strength, but I've been pleasantly surprised by what a 40% rum can deliver so I'm going to keep an open mind.
Packaging
The label's nice on the tiny bottle. Looks sensible and grown up. Kind of reminds me of my old friend Mr. Tiffen for some reason. Has a bit of a South American vibe in the design behind the name too. Have a look.
Slightly Tiffenesque
To me it feels upmarket, but not shouting about it. I hope they're letting the quality speak for itself and I'm going to have a pleasant experience here.
Smell in the bottle
On opening
Superglue.
Oak.
Vanilla spice.
Hint of clove.
Bit of cinnamon maybe.
Molasses.
Treacle toffee.
Appearance
Dark, or at least darker than most of the others in the advent calendar. I suspect something's been added. What do you reckon?
Fake tan?
This to me looks a little too dark to have just come from a cask and been watered down to bottling strength. It looks beautiful in the glass, much better than the picture shows in fact and I totally understand why a producer of brown spirits like rum, whisky, bourbon etc would add a little colouring. However I'm not certain that it's always colouring with rums. I'm writing this after having tasted it and have some thoughts, so check the extra comments for my explanation.
Neat
Nose
Molasses.
Citrus, maybe lemon rind.
Nutty.
Woody.
Toasted wood.
Burnt sugar caramel.
Vanilla caramel.
Arrival
Molasses rum.
Toffee.
Spices. Cinnamon, vanilla.
Development
Dry.
Touch fruity.
Alcohol sing.
Oak.
Finish
Oak.
Vanilla.
Drying.
Water - just a bit
Nose
Brown sugar.
Woody spice.
Vanilla.
Toffee.
Maybe dark chocolate.
Arrival
Nutty.
Maybe macadamia nuts? Not sure.
Bit of warming spice.
Not much sweetness.
After a while of the water doing it's thing a bit of citrus turned up. Maybe lemon, maybe lime, maybe both.
Touch of orange after even more time with the water.
Development
Oak.
Nutty.
Almond maybe.
A little earthiness.
Finish
Not a lot.
Vaguely rummy.
Drying oakiness.
Touch bitter.
Vegetal, like a leaf you're not supposed to eat.
Bit of dark chocolate.
A few extra comments
I'm pretty sure the barrels used for maturation are American oak and likely ex-bourbon. There was a vanilla note throughout the experience which you usually get from American oak casks. It is a blend though, and there were some more spicy notes, particularly Christmas spices like cinnamon and clove, which you get with European oak. This rum is a blend of several rums, so it's entirely possible that some is aged in American oak and some in European oak, but I think it's mostly American.
The molasses taste gives away that this rum is made from molasses. I wasn't sure in the intro as they don't say whether it's made from molasses, sugar cane honey or sugar cane juice, and the country of origin didn't give me a clue. Tasting it definitely suggests molasses though.
A note on the colour: As I've been researching rums I found out that some rums add sugar or molasses after distillation for a little extra sweetness or molassesy taste. The colour of this rum seems too dark to be just from the barrel. Distilled spirits are clear when they come off the still, so when something's the natural colour all of the colour comes from the cask. This rum seems far too dark coloured for that to be the case, but it doesn't necessarily come from caramel colouring. Some people say they can taste the caramel colouring as a burnt sugar note and I usually say that I don't think I taste it in coloured whiskies, but there was a hint of bunt sugar in this rum. Having said that it's not uncommon for rum producers to add sugar or molasses after distillation for a but of extra sweetness, and I did taste molasses in there too. Right now I'm not certain if I think this rum was made from fermented molasses giving it a molasses taste and then heavily coloured with caramel colouring giving it a burnt sugar note, or if it was distilled an then molasses was added giving it a molasses taste and dark colour. I'm leaning toward it being heavily coloured with caramel colouring due to the burnt sugar taste, but I'm really not sure.
Conclusion
Not a bad rum. Nice and rummy with molasses and toffee notes, oaky, barrel flavours were there so unmistakably barrel aged, and pretty mellow. Not enormously complex, and I think a higher bottling strength would have improved this, especially on the finish whish was remarkably short and sort of lacking. The flavours and aromas I got in the finish were quite faint and the experience kind of just dropped off rather than leading into a nice long developing experience. The development was also not particularly big, it was mostly arrival and then fading away. On a scale of one to ten I would usually expect a twelve year old spirit to evolve a little more in the mouth. Would I buy a bottle? It's not available here, so unlikely, but I might. It was reminiscent of the Pusser's gunpowder proof that I really liked, so I'd probably go for a bottle of that instead. I was trying to find a price to compare, but couldn't find one for the Borgoe. Pusser's is very reasonable for what it is though, so I'd go for that.
Hopefully the next review will be coming later today, but not promises. Cheerio.
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