Joshua Singh is the perfect example of a fervent enthusiast who has taken his passion ever further. It was by regularly attending spirits fairs, especially those dedicated to whisky, that he came across a rum that was a revelation. The group of Danish friends had a stroke of madness and bought their first cask in 2008, founded the company 1423 World Class Spirits , and here we are a few years later talking about SBS, legendary rums and dream destinations.
From a group of friends buying a cask to working closely with Caribbean distilleries, what a journey! What would be the main milestones that come to mind?
It was quite an adventure for sure! Looking back, there are several milestones that I remember that are really memorable. The first one is of course our first bottling and the memories of putting the labels on after we received the bottles. Looking at the label design today, it’s clear that none of us had any graphic design experience. Laughs
Other major milestones we have shared within the team mainly concern the first releases of our brands like 24 Days of Rum , Compañero or SBS, but the first time we moved into our first office remains equally etched in the memories.
Speaking of close collaboration with distilleries, can you tell us about your special relationship with Worthy Park?
We started working with Worthy Park almost 10 years ago, after spending 4 weeks in Jamaica, visiting distilleries, enjoying the rum and the local culture. My last visit to the island was to Worthy Park Distillery and Zan Kong the Sales Manager had just started a few months before. I was part of the first tour he organised! I fell in love with Worthy Park and brought home several bottles for my partners to taste as well. From there our import started slowly, first to Denmark, then we have since grown to represent Worthy Park in several European countries and even parts of Asia. Throughout our cooperation we have shared ideas and the Worthy Park team has always been open to our good ideas here in Europe.
You are one of the few importers/bottlers to pave your own way and explore the world of rum without intermediaries. What kind of doors do you encounter? Are there more open doors than closed doors?
People in our industry are generally very open people, people who are used to being social and being in the company of other people. However, it is important to remember that rum is also a business, and for some countries it is an essential business that brings resources to local communities and employs thousands of people. We have been fortunate to have many doors open in front of us and to keep them open, because we have also shown positive results for people who have shown us the confidence to start working together.
I understand that you have a special relationship with DDL. I won’t ask you how you got here, but I will simply ask you to tell us a little bit about what it’s like to discover one of the greatest but secret rum regions in the world, Guyana?
Well, I don’t know if my relationship with DDL is special, but I have been fortunate enough to visit the distillery twice in the past, and Guyana even more so. As a rum geek myself, touring the distillery grounds, seeing the legendary old stills in person was breathtaking and something I remember very well. I have been fortunate enough to tour many parts of the estate and in addition to seeing the stills in operation, tasting DHE from a cask in the warehouse is something I will never forget.
During my other trips to the country, I also had the chance to discover the Uitvlugt sugar factory, to visit the sites of Blairmont, Skeldon and many other historical places.
Personally, one of the projects that excited me the most is the Single Origins rums. What was the goal of these series?
The goal was to showcase the origins of the rums we age for future use with SBS, and which are also part of the blends and marks we work with. The rums we chose for the SBS Origins series are some of the strongest and heaviest distillates we have, and work both straight up and even better in cocktails. Case in point: last year, our Malacatos from Ecuador won RumExplorer’s Daiquiri competition, selected by a panel of rum enthusiasts who tasted 50 premium unaged rums.
I also think of the box set series (Caroni, Hampden, Mauritius…) and it seems that education is at the heart of all that.
Yes, education is key to a lot of what we do, both the boxes we’ve done with SBS and also through 24 Days of Rum where we try to showcase distilleries from around the world so that everyone can experience different styles and cultures, whilst reading about them on 24daysofrum.com. We believe that educating the rum lover will help this category grow even further. Rum is one of the most diverse spirits in the world and so can be a little trickier to understand at first.
How many SBS references have you bottled to date?
With the new September bottlings that were released earlier this month and are slowly hitting shelves across Europe, we've reached 201 different releases since its launch in 2016.
Now I'm curious about these latest releases!
We have just released 6 new SBS This time we visit Barbados, Antigua, Ecuador, Belize, Panama and finally we make our very first blended cask. Here we have taken an old Jamaican rum and blended it with a St Lucia rum and the result is mind blowing. You can feel the influence of both islands and their characteristics but in a perfect balance.
Antigua is an example of the distillery’s “High Congener” distillate, a heavier profile than their usual rum and really tasty. Ecuador is another world first as it’s the first time we’ve bottled an aged rum from there, so we’re really excited to see what rum drinkers think of this one!
I guess over time you must have gotten involved in aging your own rums etc. How do a bunch of whisky geeks come to choose new oak casks, quality old casks etc?
Well, over the years we have experimented a lot with different barrels, both in terms of size, different oaks and different previous uses. The knowledge we have gained has naturally made certain options our favourites and American virgin oak is the main type of barrel we use today. My partner Thomas constantly monitors the barrels closely and continues these experiments.
What we found with the Virgin Oak early on was that it matched exceptionally well with the heavy rum we were aging, the pairing of new oak and heavy rum was an obvious match.
The new barrel is really something interesting in my opinion. Can you give us some details on how this kind of aging is handled?
In the beginning, when we started aging, it was easy to manage because we could just taste a little bit whenever we wanted. Today we have too many barrels to manage it like that. My partner Thomas has been keeping a close eye on the barrels since we started, and with the experience he has gained over time, we are starting to get a good idea of when a barrel might be ready to bottle.
A new unaged rum can benefit greatly from the influence of Virgin Oak, the oak works faster at the beginning and already after 6-12 months you will notice a significant change in the rum, which will give you the impression of having aged much longer. In my opinion, the big advantage is especially evident in the first years. Here you feel a strong influence of the wood while retaining the freshness of the new distillate.
For an older rum, virgin oak can help build character. I remember we had a Cuban rum cask a few years ago, it was a classic Cuban style , very light and easy, to be honest probably a bit boring! We changed the ex-bourbon cask to Virgin Oak and in the end transformed the liquid. The Virgin Oak cask had an amazing influence on the rum, improving its flavour and aroma. Eventually it was bottled under SBS and became a favourite with many.
24 Days of Rum is a huge success and gets better every year. Can you tell us a bit about this year’s edition?
Yes, of course, this is the 8th year we are doing it and, this is the 9th edition to be marketed. We have once again selected 24 rums from 24 different countries to try to bring together different traditions and styles, for a great tasting experience allowing people to discover new and exciting flavours, while learning about rum and producers. This year’s edition will also see new origins join and we will go from Canada to Switzerland via Cambodia and Brazil , trying to cover the whole world.
The preparation of the new edition took almost a year and a half, so we are very eager to know who the favorites are this year.
Some really big rums are coming soon with Rhum Attitude, can you tell us a little about them?
Haha, yeah with pleasure. I had several conversations with Olivier and Florian over the years, about the idea of doing something special together, exclusively for Rhum Attitude. And now we are finally there! We have selected 2 rums that will be released before the end of this year. An SBS exclusive, bottled from a Jamaican HGML aged in new casks, which is an explosion of taste and flavor, with another monster of esters, a cask of C Diamond H that is already at the Brussels boutique where everyone can fill their own bottle directly from the cask.
Thank you Joshua for sharing this, and we hope to see you again very soon around a new barrel of SBS!
well done