2018 Q2 Spirited Virginia - 29

French or American oak; if they
were used previously to age
whiskey, Cognac, sherry or other
spirits; time in barrels; and the
charring of the barrel's interior.
* Climate and storage
conditions affect the barrelaging process. Though New
England once had plenty of rum
distilleries, their cool climate
couldn't compete with the warm
Caribbean climes.
* Rum labels may indicate
premium products. Look for key
words like "select," "estate" and
"XO" or words that reflect extra
aging, including "anejo," "gran
anejo," "vieux" and "hors d'age."
* And of course, never
underestimate the importance of
skill and mastery in distilling and
blending!

A GUIDE TO DELIGHTFULLY
DARK RUMS
Papa's Pilar Dark Rum
This rum pays tribute to a
classic American author, Ernest
Hemingway, fondly known as
"Papa." Pilar, Papa's 38-foot,
custom-made Playmate cabin
cruiser yacht, carried him
to adventures and provided
inspiration.
Based in Key West, Papa's Pilar
Rum Distillery sources its base
rums from five different locations
in Florida, Central America and
the Caribbean. The spirit goes
through a temperature-controlled
slow fermentation, is solera-aged
in bourbon barrels and port wine
casks and finished in Spanish
sherry casks.
Pull in the essence of this
24-year-old dark amber rum with
its aroma of vanilla, cinnamon,
dark Italian roast coffee and
honey, with hints of sherry and
port. Note its sweet, earthy and
vegetal flavors and hints of spice,
almonds and apricot.

Brugal Añejo.
Many unique factors set this
Dominican rum apart. The familyrun distillery still uses the Brugal
family recipe to make the spirit-a
closely guarded secret, handed
down through five generations.
The rum spends up to five years in
American oak bourbon casks. Most
notably, Brugal warehouses are
positioned north to south to make
the most of the Dominican sun
from morning to night, intensifying
the aging process.
Pour a bit of Brugal Añejo and
look for light aromas of wood with
subtle hints of chocolate, beautiful
buttery flavors, slight hints of
caramel and a long, dry aftertaste.
Mt. Defiance Dark Rum.
Mt. Defiance Distillery in Loudoun
County, focuses on reviving classic
spirits with roots in Colonial
America and Europe-thus rum is a
natural choice.
Instead of starting with molasses,
Mt. Defiance uses all-natural Panela
from Columbia, South America.
Panela is an unrefined sugar made
by cooking sugar cane juice, which
solidifies when cooled and retains
more cane juice flavor. The rum
ages for at least a year in small
rye whiskey barrels. Mt. Defiance
caramelizes sugar by melting and
cooking it till it almost (but not
quite!) starts to burn. It adds a bit
of that sugar to the dark rum.
Mt. Defiance rum presents with
a sweet vanilla nose, caramel,
honey and a hint of pineapple on
the palette, and a finish of nutmeg,
pepper and clove.

STONE FENCE

Peter Ahlf, distiller,
Mt. Defiance Distillery
▷ 2 OZ. MT. DEFIANCE DARK
RUM
▷ 6 OZ. MT. DEFIANCE
FARMHOUSE CIDER
▷ SERVED OVER ICE IN A
COLLINS GLASS

Truly a spirit of the Americas, rum
arose from the sugar plantations of
the New World, including Jamaica,
Barbados and Brazil. The process that
extracted sugar (a valuable export)
from sugarcane also created molasses
(a less valuable by-product). Someone,
somewhere, distilled molasses or cane
juice, and rum was born.
The first mention of rum in New
England was in 1657. It was used for
baking and cooking, as an ingredient
in beer, for distilling and even for
medicinal purposes-combatting
unwholesome air and water and
serving as an "antifogmatick" on cold
days to ward off a chill.
In the Chesapeake region of Virginia
in the early 1700s, Scottish merchants
began selling goods, including rum.
One Scottish store claimed rum as its
best-selling product.
Alcohol was Virginia colonists'
beverage of choice, because water
was often unsafe, milk unavailable,
and tea and coffee expensive.
Colonists put away lots of hard cider,
beer, brandy, rum and, later, corn
whiskey.
In her book, "Every Home a
Distillery," Virginia Commonwealth
University history professor
Sarah Hand Meacham says that
Chesapeake colonists "were distilling
extraordinary amounts of fruit
alcohols and rum," producing an
average of 21 gallons of rum for
every adult white male. "By 1770, the
average white male drank more than
three pints of rum per week."
So popular was the spirit that
American colonists flouted Britain's
attempts to control the molasses
trade. The 1733 Molasses Act
contributed to sparking the American
Revolution. Founding father George
Washington used rum and rum
punch (plus wine, beer and cider)
in campaigning for the House of
Burgesses in 1758 and to boost morale
among Revolutionary War soldiers.
For his inauguration celebration,
Washington ordered two barrels of
aged Barbados rum. -AT

SPIRITED VIRGINIA | APRIL | MAY | JUNE 2018 29
2018 Q2 Spirited Virginia

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