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.
Their 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. ~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.
FROM RED MILL
Red Mill was first made on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour in 1933. One of the great labels to come out of the legendary CSR refinery and distillery at Pyrmont.
First, there was a humble rum label bottled by George Fesq in the back of The Rocks. Then, with the return of servicemen at the end of WWII, Red Mill became a huge fixture of Sydney life, especially around the working foreshore of the western harbour. A local hero for decades before fading away in the early 1980s.
George Fesq was my great-grandfather, and I started bringing Red Mill back to life in 2020.
For this special Cascading Cask bottling, we look to the corner of our barrel hall, where we’ve been working on something unique and special for some time. Enthused by the idea of pushing the limits of American white oak casks, we began by filling freshly charred 225L ex-Bourbon casks with predominantly molasses-based distillates in 2021 and 2022. After two years, we transferred some of this aged rum to a series of Quarter Casks (125L, coopered of a melange of staves from various cut-down barrels). Finally, at the start of 2025, we moved some of this rum to 20L toasted white oak casks for its final resting.
These were decanted and bottled for Rum Tribe in October 2025.
The result is intense yet balanced, with a classic vanillin tone and biscuity aroma. The undertones are subtle iodine and char. All together in the Red Mill style, medium bodied, elegant, versatile and delicious.
ABOUT RED MILL
Red Mill was once Sydney’s most popular rum. It was first made in 1933 at the legendary CSR distillery on the harbour front in Pyrmont, then bottled by George Fesq to be sold as Fesq’s Red Mill Rum.
George Fesq was my great grandfather, and I decided to restart Red Mill, and restart making Rum, in 2020.
The difference now is we are making the rum ourselves, with a modern style based on a barrel collection that is like no other.
Our home is in the White Bay Steelworks, just a short hop across the harbour from the original distillery.
