This was our four visit to Madeira and our third year running going to the Madeira Rum Festival.
Most of you won’t have heard of Madeira rum, hence me writing this to spread the word of a new category for you to try.
Many rum clubs and aficionados will say the likes of Kraken, spiced rums and stuff like Bacardi aren’t even rums. I’ve heard people say they don’t like rum, or like white rums but not dark rums. Rum clubs will say that colour has nothing to do with it and it should be about flavour and how it’s made.
https://youtube.com/shorts/gI03S5Spt6M
For me, getting into rums through the guidance of local rum guru, Peter Holland from the Floating Rum Shack, has been a great journey. For many of us, with whatever spirit it might be, we would have ruined ourselves one night, drinking for too much rum, whiskey, vodka, gin and so on, and vow we will never drink it again. Even the smell of it can bring a gag reflex.
The thing is, now that we are older, we can actually afford the nice stuff. We can easily bring less but bring much better.
At my first rum club, I went through six rums and as it was early days for Peter, it was a gentle introduction with most around 40% ABV or not much more. It was a nice educational night of sipping but it was as just we were leaving that Peter handed me a glass of whisky cask finished rum by HSE. My head exploded and eyes opened.
Rum isn’t an average base spirit for cocktails on holiday or rum and cokes on a night out. It can be a highly sophisticated well made spirit.
Rums are generally made from two base products, molasses or sugar cane. The rum from sugar cane is also referred to as agricole. This is what Madeiran rum is made from. If you have never tried agricole, which is also prominent in places like Martinique, it will come as a real surprise to the nose. It’s fresh, vegetal and as someone has just squeeze sugar cane into a glass for. Hey, what a surprise, a spirit that actually smells and tastes of the product it was made from.
Molasses is a by-product of sugar production and those countries lead to rum based on molasses. Sometimes that style of rum is known as British and the other sugar cane based is known as French because of the colonial connections.
Scottish malt whisky garner so much attention and adoration, as it should do for the best examples. The notion of a single malt means that it’s better than a blend, right? Also, there are different whiskies based on where they are produced, from the sweeter styles of Macallan and the peaty ones from Islay.
The rum industry is trying to help with classifications so people can really geek out. Pure column still or pot still production, or a blend. Single estate, single cask. High ester, low ester. Cask finish. Colour doesn’t play a role. Why? It’s about the taste surely? Scottish whisky is allowed to have caramel added. Why? To give it a sense of age, quality, who knows? Would you only drink a light whisky not a dark one? How dark is dark?
Take a look at https://www.liquor.com/articles/rum-classification/
Anyway, back to Madeira rums. The festival is held in central Funchal, on the Avenue XXXXX. It has a number of producers with stalls where you can try their rums neat, giving easier access to the more expensive or limited editions they have. You also get the standard poncha and cocktails.
Producers such as Engenhos do Norte, Sociedade Engenhos da Calheta, William Hinton, O Reizinho were there. In fact, we have some friends who have moved to Madeira from the UK about 6 years ago and have even started production rum from the sugar cane they have grown around their home. You can’t get more niche or artisan than that. That one is called Lombo do Lombo.
If you missed the rum festival, you can always visit some of the distilleries but another way to try the rums is to visit the Madeira Rum House run by Roberto. He has a huge range of local rums there plus some international ones. It’s not only rum there for those that would rather have a beer or wine.
