Hello again. 6th of December. Christmas is coming ever closer and I have another rum to sample. This time it's another rum I've never heard of and it comes from Mexico. Mexico make some very pleasant spirits and I've tried some very pleasing mezcals and I'm keen to explore good tequila a bit more. Good luck with this rum offering, Mexico. I hereby open the adjudication...
Bit of an intro
Not really an adjudication. More of an examination. It wasn't easy to find out much about this rum. Their website wasn't the top of the list on google when I searched it, which I put down to it being in Spanish. Information wasn't easy to decipher when I did find their website because it was in Spanish. All that Spanish suggests a Spanish style rum which means it could be anything from light to heavy and oily and I have no idea what to expect. So far the rums from Spanish speaking countries have had nice flavours but have been a bit on the sweet side for my personal tastes. The website doesn't say much about taste and smell, but it doesn't say nothing so I'll try to give a comparison in the extra comments again.
Pixan is apparently Mayan, is pronounced something like "peeshan" and means the spirit that gives life. People who name spirits seem pretty convince that it gives life. So many of them mean water of life, but then distillation of strong alcohol was often used to produce medicines by dissolving various organic extracts in it. The distillery is located in Monterray in North East Mexico, but the molasses used to make it comes from the city of San Luis Potosi in central Mexico. It being made from molasses rather than sugar cane juice or sugar cane honey might mean that it's not too sweet after all. We'll have to see.
This one's aged 8 years (making it an XO rum even though they don't call it that), apparently in ex-bourbon barrels, so maybe we'll have a vanilla note. I suspect they call it 8 year old instead of XO is because XO means 6 or more years old and they want to make a point of it being more than 6. Bottled at just 40% I'm not going to add a lot of water and I'm not expecting a huge amount of complexity or range of flavour. It's produced in very small batches with each batch being less than half the size of the largest legal capacity of a barrel used for aging scotch whisky. Just 300 liters in a batch of Pixan rum and up to 700 liters in a cask of whisky. They use a double column still to make their tiny batches, which is kind of a column still cut it half and the two halves side by side. I'm expecting a fairly light body, or at least a lighter one than a pot still would have produced, but we'll have to see. I think I've run out of things to say here so I'll move on.
Packaging
Not bad. Tells you the brand, origin, and age. Specifically 8 years, none of the vague VSOP etc. business. Looks quite plain at a distance, but getting up close has more detail, and I find that quite appealing. Kindly observe.
Bonita
The obvious bit is the writing, but there's a fancy crest behind it. The label on a full size bottle has a nice embossed flowery pattern and a drop shaped hole so you can peep through and look at the rum against a white surrounding. My suspicion is it'll give the rum a darker appearance without having to darken it artificially by way of a cunning optical illusion.
Smell in the bottle
On opening
Sugary
A little fruity
Superglue (Shocking!)
Appearance
It's a pleasant golden amber, maybe a slightly coppery tone. A lot like all the others so far to be honest. Look at it now.
No surprises here
The most interesting thing about the appearance of this rum doesn't show up in the picture and that's the viscosity. It looks pretty thick and oily. that could mean that it's oily and could mean that it's sugary. I'm going with oily, and hoping it's not too sugary. I probably can't say exactly why I think it's oily rather than sugary, it just looks that way somehow.
Neat
Nose
Not getting a lot.
Faint vegetal note.
Hint of toffee.
Touch of a kind of woody spice, but just a faint touch. Not more than a whisper
Faint smokiness, almost a smoked meat smokiness.
Arrival
Sweet.
Toffee.
Oily feel.
Warm spice at first.
Development
Touch of bitterness, like a rich dark chocolate.
It all kind of disappeared leaving an oily feel but no flavour.
Maybe a hint of dark marmalade.
Bitter-sweet, kind of citrus peel, becoming herbal.
Finish
Very faint vegetal herbal note.
Slightly orangey citrus peel, not unlike marmalade, but not marmalade.
Water - Just a few drops
Nose
Less toffee, slightly more herbal.
Faint whiff of sand.
Arrival
Sucrose.
Bitter-sweet
Sweetness isn't too much, but its getting there.
A little warming, Christmassy spice.
Development
Bitterness increasing.
Bitterness has a woody quality, not so chocolatey now, and a drying feel.
A little warming spice. Kind of warm black pepper, but not really recognizable as black pepper.
Finish
Woody bitterness lingering.
Touch of vegetal, leafy sensation. Reminds me a bit of spinach, but it's not really that.
Almost disappears, but the dryness sticks around.
A few extra comments
There was a rather unexpected woody spice that I would usually associate with European oak. The rum is supposed to have been aged in Ex-bourbon barrels, which are allowed to be made of European oak as far as I know, but why would they import European oak for making bourbon casks when they could use American oak that's growing on the same continent? They wouldn't, it would be costly and eat into their profits. I think the chance that some bourbon distillery is making new barrels out of European oak and that those barrels have then been bought by this rum distillery and used for aging rum is very small indeed. I'm pretty certain the spice note isn't coming from the wood, or at least not from European oak.
The notes on the rum on the website are fairly vague:
"Its 8 years of aging highlight its complex notes and pleasant toast on the palate, its robust body achieves a velvety texture that remains in the mouth"
That doesn't say anything about taste or smell other than that it's complex and tastes of toast. I guess it is kind of complex. There isn't much I can identify but I'm not sure I'd call it complexity as much as just not much going on. I didn't get any toast from it. Robust body is right. It has a quite satisfying mouthfeel, although I don't think I'd call it velvety.
Conclusion
Hmmm. Not bad, but not amazing. Not too sweet, so ok on that front. On the standard one to ten scale the body is pretty awesome, but the actual smells and flavours are, well, for want of a better word somewhat lacking. It's not that there's nothing there, just not much. I would think an 8 year aged spirit would be a bit more lively, and have a bit more flavour and complexity. Mostly it has sugar and a bit of bitterness. I wish I had enough knowledge and experience to identify what's wrong. My best guess is a bit of an ineffective maturation, possibly due to tired casks, or too low a bottling strength meaning the complexity that it could have had is kind of washed out. Would I buy a bottle? Unlikely. If I was given this rum in some capacity I'd drink it and appreciate it, but I don't think I'd choose to pay for it. This is my only experience of Mexican rum and to b honest at this point I'm thinking they should stick to tequila and mezcal.
Not sure where tomorrow's rum is from. I'll be as surprised as you. I'm goin to hazard a guess at, ummm.... let's sayyy.... Venezuela? If I'm right you owe me a quid.
No comments:
Post a Comment