Word: rum
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Hamilton has a rough job, but somebody's gotta do it. The Florida-born chemical engineer cruises the Caribbean on his 44-ft. cutter in search of the world's best rums. He's not looking for the pale stuff you guzzle with Coca-Cola; he's out for the darker, lesser-known aged rums you sip from a snifter. That's right--rum in a snifter. Hamilton's website fans know him as the Minister of Rum, and he's issued a new decree: rum after dinner instead of the traditional brandy or single-malt scotch. "We all remember...
...premium-spirits industry, rum is the new Cognac. A drink whose reputation is usually linked with British sailors and Caribbean pirates--Blackbeard liked to mix his rum with gunpowder and light it before swilling--has suddenly risen above Captain Morgan to compete with Napoléon. U.S. sales of high-end rums shot up 45% over the past three years, to $287 million, according to the Distilled Spirits Council in Washington. Gourmet restaurants are taking notice. Labels like Santa Teresa's 1796--a top Hamilton pick for its "honey smooth" finish--from Venezuela are after-dinner favorites at Cacao in Miami...
...World cachet is key. "Younger drinkers seem to have decided that aged rum is a statement about their generation," says Olly Wehring, executive editor of the London-based Just-Drinks report. "Cognacs and aged whiskeys are what their parents drank." David Longfield, an editor at Drinks International in London, agrees. Aged rum "has a hip, even naughty aspect that Cognac tends to lack." Matusalem (a Spanish variation of Methuselah), for instance, uses a recipe smuggled out of Cuba after the 1959 revolution. The company's sales in Spain, one of the hottest aged-rum markets, are expected to double this...
...Aged rum's surprising similarity to Cognac--the complex flavors and aromas of oak, caramel and vanilla, the hints of tobacco and leather--is what first grabs most enthusiasts. But because rum is fermented from sugarcane juice, syrup or molasses, it offers a sweet bonus: tropical essences like banana, pineapple and coconut. Known as ron añejo in Spanish and rhum vieux in French, aged rums are blends of stock as old as 30 years, stored in oak. (Solera on the labels refers to the blending process.) The Caribbean climate accelerates aging, giving the rums more tannins and spice. Retail...
François Bertrand, head sommelier at the elegant French restaurant Le Gavroche in London, jokes that he agreed to stock 1796 aged rum two years ago because of "the beautiful young Venezuelan marketing rep." But after tasting it, he decided to fool some of his patrons and pour them the rum instead of Cognac. "The cheap nightclub image of rum that had always put them off was changed immediately," says Bertrand...