Bourbon Drinkers and Barbados Rum – What’s the Deal?
While 98% of what I write focuses on rum, I stay abreast of bourbon happenings and have more than a token bottle of bourbon on my shelves. Among the frequent topics in Bourbonlandia is taters. For those unfamiliar with the term, it’s slang for bourbon buyers who obsessively chase after and hoard bourbons that the bourbon Illuminati have decreed “the best” while ignoring everything else. Several Instagram accounts specialize in tater memes. Pappy Van Winkle, WL Weller and Blanton’s all receive an outsized share of tater attention. Not coincidentally, they’re all made by the same distillery.
With so much attention going to a few “unicorn” bourbons, prices have soared beyond any common sense. Speculators with inside connections snap up sought-after bottles and resell them for much higher prices in the aftermarket. It’s the spirits world equivalent of ticket scalpers.
Given the above, I’m not surprised to see many bourbon drinkers sticking their noses into the rum tent to see if there’s anything worth drinking that doesn’t require a home equity loan. Daily, I see posts like this in r/rum on Reddit:
Bourbon/American Whiskey drinker looking to dabble in the rum world.
As stated by the subject. I’ve been drinking American whiskey for some time now and I have always been curious about the nicer rums out there. What is a good rum to sip on around the $150 price point or less for someone who has only ever had rum in tropical cocktails?
Or
New Rum question from a bourbon drinker.
So I am expanding my liquor out into Rum from Bourbon and Scotch. The notes I generally really enjoy are tobacco/earthy or smoke notes. I don’t know if this is something you find in rum. IF it is can someone recommend a Rum to try
Without fail, the replies are dominated by recommendations for Barbados rums—in particular from Mount Gay and Foursquare. There’s no shortage of stellar quality, readily available rums from around the globe, so we might reasonably expect a broader spectrum of answers than we see. The question is, “What is it about bourbon drinkers and Barbados rum?”
Some might say the now-classic Barbados rum profile is closest to bourbon’s flavor profile. But if we poured snifters of Buffalo Trace and Mount Gay XO for the typical drinker, I’d bet that most wouldn’t consider them to be noticeably similar.
There’s something deeper here. Let’s take a look.
Flavor Profiles
As a precursor to this story, I wrote an earlier story, Rum, Ratios, and Flavor. It describes how nearly all a rum’s flavor comes from two stages of its production process: fermentation and aging. Fermentation flavors should reflect the source materials and are often fruity and/or grassy. In some cases, even oily! The difference in flavor between unaged molasses and cane juice rum? That’s fermentation flavor. That crazy rotting banana flavor you get from most Jamaicans? That’s fermentation flavor.
Aging flavors are vanilla, oak, and spices. Fermentation flavors aren’t easily mistaken for aging flavors, and vice versa. Experienced drinkers can easily tell them apart.
The article also posits that we can individually assign values — from 0 to 10 — to the intensity of a spirit’s fermentation and aging flavors. We can then represent those two values as a ratio, e.g., 2/7, meaning a fermentation flavor intensity of ‘2’ and an aging flavor intensity of ‘7’. Rums made in a similar style, e.g., Spanish heritage, tend to have similar flavor-type ratios. Below is a graph representing a few well-known rums.
As it turns out, most rums are either fermentation-forward or aging-forward. A fermentation-forward rum is where fermentation flavors make up the sizeable majority of the rum’s total flavor. Unaged Jamaican overproof is a canonical example. Likewise, an aging-forward rum derives most of its flavor from aging. Think long-aged Spanish heritage rums like Flor de Caña 12 or 21-year-old Panamanian.
Note: the intensity values described above are completely subjective. No scientific measurement is involved. Your intensity rankings may differ from mine for the same rum, and that’s OK. The overarching premise of fermentation-forward vs. aging-forward still stands.
Bourbon and Barbados
Returning to the original topic, we can better understand why Barbados rum is so frequently recommended for newcomers to the rum fold — especially for bourbon drinkers.
Most Barbados rums are an easy stepping stone from bourbon, not because their specific flavors are closely aligned but because their fermentation-to-aging flavor ratios are similar. If we compared the flavor intensities of a typical bottled-in-bond bourbon against a similar-strength Mount Gay or Foursquare rum aged for a decade or more, the graph would look something like this:
Put another way, people usually acclimate faster to something new if the changes don’t force them too far out of their comfort zone. Say you’re a Taylor Swift fan looking for something else for your Spotify playlist. Sabrina Carpenter or Olivio Rodrigo may be more your speed rather than Metallica. Taylor’s and Sabrina’s music is different but not wildly different. Likewise, suggesting Wray & Nephew White Overproof as a first rum for a bourbon drinker probably won’t yield a successful outcome, regardless of how canonical it is in the rum world.
Most bourbon aficionados would agree that bourbon is an aging-forward spirit. In a 2013 article for the Atlantic, Wayne Curtis (a familiar name to many rum heads) wrote:
I recently asked a dozen or so people involved in the bourbon industry how much of the flavor comes from the barrel, and how much comes from other elements, such as the grains used or the distillation method. Most said that 60 or 70 percent of the flavor comes from the barrel, and one went as high as 80 percent. No one I spoke with estimated the proportion at less than 50 percent…
The same could be said for many expressions from Mount Gay and Foursquare. This isn’t to say they have the same vanilla, almond and coconut flavor depth as most bourbons. Bourbon must age in new oak casks, so the spirit steeps in a veritable teabag of wood-derived flavors. Meanwhile, most rums age in ex-bourbon casks—a once-used teabag, if you will. However, Barbados is hotter than the main parts of the US where bourbon is made, so the rate of aging in Barbados is substantially faster. The resulting bourbon and rum aging flavors may not be identical, but they’ll have similar intensities.
Let’s not focus entirely on aging flavors, though. Most bourbon is column distilled, but only to a maximum of 80% ABV. Thus, raw bourbon distillate typically has a moderate flavor heft to it. In contrast, most high-end Barbados rums are a blend of column and pot distillates, with column usually dominating in the blend. The column distillate is usually at a higher ABV, so light in flavor. However, it’s balanced out by the inclusion of heavier pot distillate. Again, the fermentation flavor intensity of bourbon and mid- to upper-tier Barbados rums are roughly equivalent from my perspective.
Note: everything in the preceding paragraph is a generalization. Each Barbados expression has its own blend, and various Barbados distilleries now make high ester pot distilled rum and heavy column rum. The above points still stand.
In the bourbon world, additives are verboten, so another positive checkmark for Mount Gay/Foursquare rums is that both distilleries publicly eschew the use of additives.
Another important favor in courting bourbon drivers is alcoholic strength. High-end bourbon drinkers usually favor their spirit at 50% ABV or more. Mount Gay and Foursquare have growing stables of releases at 50% ABV or higher; bourbon drinkers have taken notice. Beyond the distillery releases, there are plenty of cask-strength Foursquare-distilled rums from various independent bottlers. Such releases aren’t inexpensive but are usually still a bargain compared to bourbons of a similar stature.
Beyond Barbados
Where should a bourbon drinker who has taken to Barbados rum look next in their rum journey? The classic Barbados profile has lots to love, with very little in the way of sharp edges. Going beyond this style can expose sharper edges — often noticeably sharper—but plenty of rums are easy second steps. Let’s look at some options.
Longer-aged Spanish heritage rums like Bacardi Ocho (8-year) and Ron Abuelo 12-year are also quite aging forward. However, many are entirely based on very light column distilled rum. As such, discerning much of the fermentation flavor can be challenging. Many Spanish heritage rums also incorporate a noticeable amount of sweetening. Some drinkers don’t mind, while others are aghast. These rums also traditionally have a maximum strength of 40% ABV, even the most expensive expressions. If your enjoyment of a spirit starts at 50% ABV, you’ll have to look harder to find a Spanish heritage rum that ticks all your boxes.
That isn’t to say there aren’t options worth checking out. Puerto Rico’s Don Q includes medium and heavy column rums in their upper-tier releases. They don’t sweeten or use additives, either. Florida-based independent bottler Grander has a wide swath of higher strength & additive-free rums from Los Cabras in Panama. Don’t sleep on these if you’re in the US.
Outside the US market, the Cuban rum industry has tiptoed into progressively more interesting releases. Both Havana Club have released editions at 50% ABV or higher and using a higher percentage of aguardiente, i.e., heavier column rum. Even the readily available and affordable Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros is worth checking out despite its 45% ABV. I have a stockpile from foreign trips.
Moving away from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, St. Lucia Distillers remains a hidden gem. Like Mount Gay and Foursquare, St. Lucia Distillers primarily uses pot/column blends. But everything in their Chairman’s Reserve and Admiral Rodney lines punches way above its weight class. They also have a ton of limited releases worth buying immediately on sight. Pro tip: If you dig peated scotch whisky, seek out their rums with distillate from their Vendome pot still.
A bit further afield for bourbon drinkers are Jamaica’s Appleton Estate rums. While Jamaica is famous for its sometimes polarizing “funky” flavors, Appleton dials back the primal funk and replaces it with sublime wood and orange peel notes. While different from what bourbon drinkers are used to, Appleton 12 and 21 usually bring a smile to the lips of bourbon lovers.
As for US-made rums that bourbon drinkers will likely love, Privateer is at the top of many lists. The small Massachusetts distillery uses pot stills and quite a bit of new American oak in their aging regime. The Navy Yard release ages at least four years in new American oak and is bottled at around 57% ABV. To my taste buds, it has a flavor profile similar to Foursquare rums.
Other American rum distillers using new American oak include Louisiana’s Oxbow. They make both cane juice and molasses expressions—fun to try side-by-side! Georgia’s Richland Rum has been making rum for over two decades and is known for its bourbon-like profile, resulting from using new American oak.
The above list of next-step options is admittedly incomplete, and I’m intentionally not mentioning some of my favorite rums. Many aren’t what I’d consider easy stepping stones.
Barbados rum is often called a gateway rum for bourbon drinkers. Some who cross over may choose not to wander further afield, while others soon find themselves chasing down the most exotic, weird and wild rums the category contains. Either way, more drinkers appreciating rum as a world-class spirit equal in stature to the finest whiskies and brandies helps elevate the category.
Very insightful and enjoyable article as usual mate. And the “additive/adjunct” space is only getting more increased scrutiny from consumers seeking “purity” and minimal intervention in their alcoholic beverages….
This is the most important thing to many of the inveterate collectors: Someone once told them that Foursquare equaled "The Pappy of Rum," and they just memorized that rote fact and now hunt for it. Unfortunately, this involves the same degree of disinterest in the entire rest of the industry that they also apply to bourbon. They don't want something unless they're told it's hard to get.