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Category Archives: Rum
Beer and rum review — Knappstein and Bundaberg
Knappstein Enterprise Brewery Reserve Lager 330ml 4-pack $16 Knappstein Clare Valley winery, an outpost of Japan’s Kirin Brewery, released its own Clare-brewed lager in 2006. Knappstein recently announced plans to expand production using Kirin’s Malt Shovel brewery in Sydney. Fingers crossed that he quality holds as Knappstein’s full-bodied, complex, very bitter lager rates among Australia’s very best.
Bundaberg Original Rum Select Vat 207 700ml $48 The press release says Bundy’s new release is literally a separate bottling from a vat selected by the distillers for the quality of its content. The light amber colour, olive green rim and mellow aroma reflect extended vat ageing – and the fiery, flavour-packed palate confirms it as rum, not fine brandy.
Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012 First published 8 August 2012 in The Canberra Times
Posted in Beer review, Rum
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Bundy goes upmarket
When great, great grandfather Shanahan trudged up Macquarie Street, past Sydney’s rum hospital, the dark spirit served as both currency and tipple of choice in his majesty’s colony. Cold, hard cash eventually became currency, but the tipple lingered on, ultimately retiring to Queensland, close to the cane fields.
Two hundred years on, Bundaberg distillery rules Australia’s rum category, principally through the enormous success of its ready-to-drink mixes – notably with ginger beer and cola.
But Bundaberg’s London-based owner, Diageo, clearly sees an upmarket niche, and perhaps respectability, in finer, aged versions of its molasses-based spirit.
Golden Reserve, the third in Bundaberg’s Master Distillers’ Collection, combines a range of older rums, some matured in retired sherry and port barrels. These inject attractive flavours into our historic, sun-soaked spirit. It’ll hold little appeal to Cognac or single-malt drinkers. But it’s definitely a rum to savour on its own.
Bundaberg Master Distillers’ Collection Golden Reserve Rum $89.99 The colour’s a deep gold and the aroma suggests the “rancio” character of fortified wine, long aged in old oak barrels – with the devil rum itself pushing through in the background. Fiery spirits leads the charge on a rich, smooth palate that also reflects the oak character of the aroma.
Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2012 First published 16 May 2012 in The Canberra Times
Posted in Rum
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