Riverbourne Dark Sipping Rum

Description

From a tiny NSW farm well known for its extraordinary Single Malt Whisky, comes a 5 year old pure single rum blended from 2 different casks – The Riverbourne Dark Sipping Rum!

The Riverbourne Dark Sipping Rum from farmer/biochemist/pharmacist/engineer/mechanic/distiller and all-round renaissance-man Martin Pye. His whisky is made paddock-bottle on his own farm. But as it’s a bit chilly for sugar cane where he is, Martin has to rely on his nephew who grows cane in Coraki for the family farming connection for his rum’s ingredients.

Martin incorporates dunder into his wash to give his rum as much local terroir as he can. He distils exclusively in a copper pot still. The Riverbourne Dark Sipping Rum is blend from two casks (both 5+ years old!) – one a second fill ex-bourbon and the other an ex-red wine cask (French oak) recoopered with American oak ends. The result is an amazing nose with as unique a hogo or funk as this guy has ever smelt and I’m absolutely stoked to have discovered this gem for the Tribe to try!

Riverbourne Distillery (located about 50km SE of Canberra in Jingera) is as well-known as any small, artisanal, paddock to bottle distillery can be in the Australian single malt whisky scene. However, distiller/owner Martin (dark horse that he is) doesn’t mid the odd rumbo and so, well… he made some! And we’re stocked to have some (he doesn’t make much after all) for our Member’s Extra this month.

Our Tasting Notes

Nose: A very distinctive nose – lovely hogo with a metallic ping there too. Funky fruit-salad, mashed banana, musk sticks, and a few other esters throwing their two cents in (a touch of model glue, some lipstick and a pinch of nail polish remover). Very complex – there’s also a couple of notes I just can’t pick wafting around (but I am enjoying trying) too!

Palate: A huge fruit salad rush at first – with next to no intrusion of the alcohol – lovely integration of the spirit, smooth and oily! Such a sweet, fruity beast this one with no suggestion at all of dryness or astringency in the palate.

Finish: Long and lingering – and a bit of a chameleon. The rich, sweet fruitiness of the palate does take on a nice amount of dryness as the finish progresses. Sultana notes, creamy salted-caramel, vanilla, licorice and more musk sticks take turns in the spotlight as the it slowly fades.

An immensely enjoyable rum to (as the name suggests) sip on… and on and on! Incredibly easy to drink neat with that healthy 48% abv superbly integrated. Riverbourne’s pot still has delivered an oily, sweet and tasty offering here that finishes with just enough dryness to leave the palate clean and ready for (you guessed it)… another!

From Riverbourne

My rum is fermented in the Jamaican style using dunder, and is double distilled in a full copper pot still with a capacity of 900 litres.

The molasses is sourced from the Sunshine Sugar refinery in Northern NSW. Interestingly, the only remaining Australian owned refinery. My nephew grows sugar cane at Coraki, on a farm on which he is the 4th generation owner – which he supplies to the Sunshine refinery giving this rum a family connection between paddock to bottle.

The Riverbourne Dark Sipping Rum is a vatting of two barrels. One an ex-bourbon 2nd fil ex rum, the other a re-coopered French oak ex red wine, with new American ends. Both were aged on the top rack of the distillery, the warmest, which results in quicker maturation.