Outlaw Rum, The Flagship

Outlaw Rum very kindly sent me a bottle of their Flagship bottling to try and share my honest thoughts on. Outlaw was a brand I had started to hear mentions of, but I hadn’t had a chance to try it, so I was keen to see what they were all about.

Outlaws approach is a tried and tested approach we see from a lot of Independent Bottlers – they import a rum from Trinidad and then age this continentally in the colder climate of Scotland after putting it into specific casks designed to impart a specific flavour and profile.

The presentation of this bottle is fantastic! It’s a surprisingly weighty bottle with the dark label and detailed decorative writing on the bottle making this feel closer to a whisky bottling.

Facts & Figures.

ABV: 40%

Country: Trinidad & Tobago

Age: undisclosed

Cask: Speyside and Highland Scotch whisky casks

Still: Column

Price: £73.50

Distillery: undisclosed

On the nose.

Stone fruit and red currants give this a vibrant, fruity profile. Going deeper than that you get the impression of very green fresh wood on a fire. Lots of young, rough wood all round. Small hint of vanilla, cinnamon and red fruits to finish.

On the palate.

This drinks like a completely different rum to the nose. A very waxy mouthfeel with heaps of young wood (saplings!) that is present, but not overwhelmingly so. I don’t get any stone fruit or red fruits like I expected from the nose. Very vegetal in a way that is reminiscent of sugar cane and a hint of orange zest on the finish. It’s quite waxy and oily in the profile which is clearly the cask influence coming out to play.

I find this to be straddling / blurring the lines between rum and whisky.

6/10 – This isn’t like any Trinidad rum I’ve had before… the cask influence is significant.