The TWE Rum Show 2024
I’m sat on the sofa unwinding after a fantastic couple of days at The Rum Show 2024, presented by The Whisky Exchange, and reading through my notebook of crazy scribblings. The offering this year was fantastic with a huge selection of brands that really represented the full spectrum of the rum category; it was definitely a case of there being something for everyone!
Beyond tasting the rums themselves it was also really nice to catch up with some familiar faces and meet lots of new people with a shared interest. I also got the chance to sit down with some awesome people in the industry and will be sharing some new interview formats soon!
Unfortunately the nature of attending a rum show and there being such a large variety of rum to sample means I’m not able to capture all of the nuanced tasting notes and scores for every rum as I would usually aim for but that hasn’t stopped me calling out some of my top finds from the Rum Show (and adding about 15 bottles to my wish list haha).
Millions of peaches, Outlier – This limited edition rum from the windy Isle of Man is a scratch British rum aged in Sauternes cask that seriously delivers on peachy goodness with a healthy 63.1% ABV. It was great to see this sell-out at the TWE show store.
A blend of two 5 year old rums (from Barbados and Guyana) that are then aged for an additional year in very old Pedro Ximenez casks; the Dos Maderas Atlantic gives off fresh, juicy, red fruit vibes.
A lovely long finish that ends with leather on the tip of the tongue and red fruit at the back.
Another top find for me was Renaissance Distillery of Taiwan producing some stunning single cask rums with a variety of expressions of cask finish and an unheard of level of transparency on the back of the bottle.
Both the Bas-Armagnac Cask and the Noble Rot Cask blew my mind.
I also made sure to try rums that were outside of my comfort zone like this SBS Single Origin Australia <KLK>.
Despite being unaged and high ester (traditionally something I don’t enjoy as much) I found this to be a really enjoyable tipple giving off pure wimbledon vibes – Strawberries & Cream!
I had to call out the Maestro Reserva from Brugal as really defining what I call a premium, thinking rum. This double-column distilled rum is double aged using the Dark Aromatic Toasting technique which is essentially the cask equivalent of Crème Brûlée, resulting in a liquid that offers depth in the form of subtle, nuanced flavours rather than big and loud.
Being a big fan of the 7 year from Eminente I have to say the 10 year Gran Reserva did not disappoint.
This is 80% aguardiente aged in white oak before finishing off for a further 3-6 months in french oak this offers stripped back woody vibes, spice on the finish and just the smallest hint of sweetness to round it off.
With so many fantastic rums it was impossible to call them all out in this post but I’ll be sharing some dedicated tasting notes for a couple of specific drams over the next month or so including the Angostura Zenith (I used my dream tot token for this), Black Tot Master Blender’s Reserve 2024 as well as a few more once I get a chance to buy them and revisit them with a fresh palate.
