Two new Rums were recently released by the Duchess (in their Hummingbird series of Rums), which have bottled quite a few very good Rums in the past. The first one I am about to review is the 11-year-old ‘Ten Cane’. Ten Cane is a closed distillery located in Trinidad. This rum was aged for 7 years in tropical weather then 4 more years in non-tropical, and bottled at a nice 63% !!! from cask #80.
I must confess I’ve not heard about Ten Cane distillery until now. They were introduced in 2005 by Moet Hennesey (LVMH). The distillery took a classic artisanal approach to its production process, making use of French pot stills and tropical aging. However, the rums never sold well…
Ten Cane 11 year, 63% , The duchess, € 89,95
Nose: big with lots of wax, shoe polish, cane juice, rubber, mocha, banana, ginger, vanilla ice and clove, lovely polished oak, and cane sugar, kerosene.
Palate: boom! Spicy, hot with chili, pepper, sugar, leather, prune juice, oak shavings, more banana, and some grassy notes as well that balance all the fruity stuff that’s going on here. Lovely.
Finish: More sugar cane, funk, wax, and more of the ‘dirty’ so to speak, fruit.
Conclusion : While this is no Caroni, it does share some similarities, but it’s quite different in a good way. Highly interesting stuff, I think I am in love. Yet again the Duchess have demonstrated they know how to pick a cask!
Available on quite a few Dutch whisky and Rum sites. check it out.