Red Mill Rum Cascading Cask

Description

Welcome to the most complex maturation program we have ever seen….and its EXCLUSIVE to the Tribe! From the vintage Sydney rum brand, Red Mill, we are excited to launch a rum with as unique a spectrum of aromas and flavours as we have  ever tasted – The Red Mill Rum Cascading Cask!

Now let’s explain this exclusive release for the Rum Tribe, and possibly the most intricate maturation regime we have ever witnessed! The first step of the maturation was two years in a 225L ex-Bourbon (American oak) cask which was then split into two 125L Quarter Casks (comprised of mixed staves from ex-bourbon, fortified and wine casks) for a further year. After this the two 125L casks were split into 20L toasted American oak casks for yet another 12 months before being decanted, re-married and bottled exclusively for the Rum Tribe at 4 years of age and 44.4% abv.

Red Mill spirit is lighter and cleaner than a lot of ‘artisanal’ rum makers due in part to their use of a column still which helps extract a crisper spirit – less oily and more refined. They use a mix of Winemaker’s PDM (Chardonnay) and Fusion (Pinot Noir) yeasts. Approximately 96 hours of fermentation giving a ~7.5% yield. This produces a spirit with as unique a spectrum of aromas and flavours as I’ve ever tasted.

Now Red Mill Rum is a great story. The co-owner Dave Fesq is the great-grandson of the original owner of the brand George Fesq. Red Mill (in its first iteration) kicked off in 1933 and was contract distilled by the CSR refinery. In 1946 George’s son Bill returned from WW2 and took the brand to considerable commercial success – selling over 300,000 bottles/year by 1950 and establishing itself as NSW’s (and particularly Sydney’s) ‘go-to’ rum. A household name. In 1979, the brand was sold to William Grant and eventually ‘mothballed’ in the mid-80’s.

In 2020, David Fesq teamed up with Garth Foster (previously Moet Hennessy Brand Ambassador) to resurrect his family’s rum brand. In 2024, Red Mill moved into it’s current location in White Bay Sydney – an absolutely spectacular WW2 logistics warehouse (complete with HUGE rail-crane for loading things like tanks!) that holds the stills, the maturing casks and a ‘cellar door’ masterclass room for those who visit.

Having visited myself last year it really is an amazing space – one of the most memorable distilleries in Australia. If you find yourself in around White Bay, I highly recommend popping in – you won’t be disappointed!

Our Tasting Notes

Nose: Rather delicate with light jasmine notes, faint bubble gum, citrus peel with an almost malty quality too. But there’s a surprising hint of salty-iodiney note there as well (similar to the iodine/seaweed note common in peated whisky) which is both surprising, and very different in a rum.

Palate: Wow – this is different to any Red Mill I’ve had previously – much more viscous on the palate. So very gentle too – a very mild warmth is as ‘spicy’ as this gets making it extremely easy to sip neat).  Lots of fruit there – green apples, nice and sweet – which precedes a nutty, malt-biscuit tone becoming dominant.

Finish: The aforementioned malty-biscuit vibe morphs into a delicious nuttiness as the finish takes hold. Peanut brickle vibes with a delicious salty-twang swirl around a healthy pinch of those sea-weedy notes found in the nose.

This is rather a surprising rum – and definitely packs some of the qualities of a good single malt whisky as well! In fact, I guarantee it will stop a ‘whisky drinker’ in their tracks. Those salty / iodiney notes are very distinctive (and extremely rare) in a rum but do a wonderful job at framing the fruity core – as they do in a good peated single malt whisky.  My personal guess is there are more than few red wine staves mixed into those 125l casks giving out those wonderful nutty notes. And the saltiness (which really comes through clearly in the finish) gives it a real ‘maritime aged’ quality. Another super-interesting (in fact I’m going to go full noise and call it unique as well!) rum from this Sydney distillery.