Since 2017, the old brothers Anto and Julien have been delighting rum and spirits lovers with spectacular selections. On the occasion of the arrival of the Old Brothers range on Rhum Attitude, we spoke with Anthony who reveals the behind the scenes of the latest bottlings. This interview is published in two parts, because Anto is passionate, exciting, and therefore talkative 🙂
We start with this rum from Panama, selected in collaboration with the rum bar of the Monte-Cristo hotel, the 1802. It's a big favorite for us, but also a big surprise:
Old Brothers Panama 70.1°
“I didn’t expect that myself! The story begins at Rhum Fest Paris in 2019, when I walk past the Abuelo stand. I know Dimitri very well (Editor’s note: Dimitri Pérez from Apotheka, Abuelo’s distributor in France ), who tells me “Anto, you ask everyone for juices, but not me!” I answer him frankly, telling him that there are plenty of distilleries that excite me, but that I haven’t thought about Abuelo yet. He tells me that I’m wrong, but I never refuse a tasting, so I’m willing to try. He took me at my word, and a week later I received a sample.
So this is a rum for which they choose the best molasses from the estate. They do a "short" fermentation of 72 hours, with indigenous yeasts. This is followed by a distillation at 81% on a single column, much lower than the rest of the production, to extract more aromas. They use this rum to bring complexity to the blends. It is blended with rums distilled much higher, much lighter in aromas.
When I tasted it I was blown away. It reminded me of Ferroni's La Guildive, of very very rich things like River Antoine etc.
“It’s so vegetable, you’d think it was cane juice!”
At first I thought I had done something stupid: it was 81% and it was very very good. But I told myself that it was still a bit strong, and that I had to reduce it slightly. I used distilled water, and I caught metallic notes in the reduction. I told myself that I had ruined my bottling! And then with time it passed, and it came back to how it was originally.
Now I reduce to Mont Roucous spring water. It was recommended to me, I tried it and it really is better. When I received it, I put everything in a stainless steel tank, and I reduced it over 3 months. I lowered it by 10%, and I stirred it. I stir by hand, that is to say I have a paddle next to the tank, and as soon as someone comes to the workshop, they give it a stroke with the paddle. You have to put love into it. When it is done with a motor, it is mechanical, it is not the same energy. The less you break the spirit, the more delicate you are, the better. It is like in wine, to not rush it, you circulate it by gravity. I am sure that is what I should do too.
In the warehouse, I have a huge metal beam. I would like to use it to circulate my spirits by gravity and no longer use a pump. Many people have told me that it works on wine, but not on spirits. But I figure that if it's good for wine, it's also good for spirits.
There are a lot of things I was told not to do, and I did them anyway!
I was told that you shouldn't barrel at 90%, so I barreled the first one at 86%, the next one at 69%, then at 65%. I want to understand for myself rather than just listening. Often, people have a Cognac training experience that is quite linear. I need to understand for myself because this is only the beginning, so I don't want to miss anything. I think that depending on the spirits that you barrel, some will react much better than others.
It also depends on the aging time. For example, if I were to put it in a barrel to keep it there for 20 years (something I am not financially able to do at the moment), I would tend to put it at 86%. My current approach is that I put it in a barrel at full strength, and I apply a gradual reduction, a bit like cognac, to bring it down to 65% throughout the aging. That is to say, if it has to stay in a barrel for 5 years, the first year I will leave it at 86% so that it can really get into the wood and extract the tannins. And then after one year, I will apply a very slow reduction, liter by liter, until I reach the strength I want.
I am someone who likes nothing more than bourbon barrels. I prefer them first fill. There will always be a second pass, but I will never use completely " rinsed " barrels.
Find his tasting note here .
Let's continue with the second batches of the FWI (Barbados) and LPCH (Jamaica) blends:
Old Brothers FWI Batch 2 47.1°
"On this batch 2, the barrels are older. I have 2014 for the WIRD, which I received at 64.6%, and 2016 for Foursquare, received at 65.9%, in bourbon barrels (as for the first batch, but therefore with one more year).
I did 30 blending tests again, and reshuffled the cards, because each barrel is unique. I didn't want to do the same proportions just because they were the same vintages. In the end, we have 10% more Foursquare, because it was a little less sweet than the first. For this one, I even had the obscuration rate redone, because it seemed so sweet! And in the end, no caramel, no nothing at all, it's impressive. The obscuration rate is 0, there's nothing but rum.
Everything went into stainless steel vats at Jean Cavé ( the Armagnac producer, editor's note ). Ghislain, the cellar master of the house, carried out a 7-month schedule to gradually integrate the rum and the reduction. We added water once every two weeks, so that it would reach 47.1% after 7 and a half months. I had this objective in terms of degree because after having done tests, I was bored below 47%.
For Foursquare, the blend is 40% pot-still and 60% column. For WIRD it's simple, there's a pot-still barrel and a column barrel."
Find his tasting note here .
Old Brothers LPCH Batch 2 47.1°
« La qualité est vraiment montée d’un cran par rapport au premier batch, surtout en raison du temps qu’on y a mis. Après les essais, j’ai ajouté 3 % de plus de Hampden. J’ai plusieurs fûts en vieillissement donc je peux utiliser ce que j’ai envie. J’ai du DOK, du LROK, du <H>… Donc là j’ai remis du DOK vieilli en fût de bourbon, à hauteur de 13 %, contre 10 % la première fois. Ce n’est pas rien sur ce genre de jus.
The first time, I had assembled it over 3 months, and now over 7, so instead of having three products, we really have a single product, more harmonious, better integrated. That's when I understood that I can still raise the level, because quality equals time and time equals money. If the first time I had done it over 3 months, it's simply because I had to pay the bills (laughs)! The second time I was able to wait 7 and a half months, and the third time I hope I can do even better, perhaps in ex-cognac Grande Champagne casks with 20 years of cognac. If I can do it over a year, a year and a half, that will be great. I can still really raise the level and that's what excites me.
I don't care about always reproducing the same blend. Old Brothers allows itself whatever it wants! From one batch to another, I don't want it to necessarily be similar. That's the magic of spirits, each barrel is unique. Why force things to be similar? What's beautiful is that it's different. And because of this, some will prefer batch 3, others batch 1, that's fine.
The casks were selected from the distilleries, everything arrives at my place after tropical aging. There is EMB and MLC from Clarendon, VRW and STCE from Long Pond, and DOK from Hampden, all in ex-bourbon casks.
I will also be aging Long Pond STCE, New Yarmouth high ester and Savanna HERR. For me, objectively, high esters and grand-arômes are the casks on which you can go the least wrong."
Find his tasting note here :
Old Brothers Diamond – Versailles 2003-2018 61.5°
“Still ex-bourbon, cask strength, natural color, no chill filtration. It’s a 15 year old bottled in December 2018. The MDK mark is actually a broker mark, I learned later that it was actually a VSG, but too late, the labels were already on! (laughs)”
Find its product sheet here .
Continued in the next episode …