New Grove single cask 2007 50° rum brotherhood

This is the ^10th cuvée of the Confrérie du Rhum, the famous facebook group well known to rum lovers, which is celebrating its ^5th anniversary.

New Grove is a rum produced by Grays, the large distillery located in Pamplemousses in the north of the island.

492 bottles were made from the French oak barrel bearing the n°114, a vintage (2007) bottled at the end of 2017.

Nico's tasting notes

The nose opens with a very well-balanced rum, with a bouquet of flowers that smacks of the sweet freshness of spring. In the tropics, some fruits are already ripe at this time of year. The mango is still a little green, but full of promise. In the distance, you can smell the distillery's boiler with its burning steel, its coppery, metallic notes joining quince paste and tart red fruits. We also visit the apiaries, with honey already well concentrated and the beekeeper's smoke still lingering in the air.

With aeration, we step through the doors of the distillery and find ourselves up close to the big machinery. New Grove's smoky character is in full swing, then links up again with fruit, and even very clearly with raspberry, blackberry and quince fruit pastes. Now that the balance has been established, we turn our attention to the structure of this rum. Smooth, dense and complex, it tells us a long story.

The palate is just as well-balanced as the nose, starting with a good whiff of metallic, even bituminous smoke, quickly dissipated and swallowed up by dark, concentrated honey. The fruit juices almost refresh the mouth and pass through like a ray of sunshine, before the toasty but still intact exotic wood spreads out wide and imprints the taste buds with its tannins. The barrel flavors make the pleasure last, but without taking the easy way out. Caramel, tobacco and vanilla simply consolidate the whole.

The finish retains the sensation of fresh fruit and even a hint of menthol, before the rum gently fades to roasted nuts, particularly chestnuts.

"A very nice selection from the team at La Confrérie du Rhum. New Grove's Single Barrels are often success stories, and this one is remarkably well-balanced. Hats off..."

In addition to our tasting notes

Here's what the distillery's cellar master has to say, in very precise terms:
- to the eye, the surface is shiny, the color amber, the tears that settle when the glass is turned are oily, the fat content is 7/10
- the^1st nose (15 to 20 cm from the glass) is moderately powerful and fruity
- the^2nd nose (on the glass) is powerful, with yellow fruit and citrus notes
- the^3rd nose (after aeration) is equally powerful, offering passion fruit and spices
- on the palate, the structure is taut and medium-bodied, and the rum offers aromas of fruit, spices and peppers, with a spicy finish.

On video

On our Youtube channel, watch our interview with Florence de Coriolis from Gray's distillery (New Grove, Lazy Dodo and Mauricia) and Benoît Bail Danel, founder of the Facebook group La Confrérie du Rhum. They joined us for a tasting of New Grove Single Cask 2007 as part of the box of the month.