Wine & Rum.
Two spirits not usually mentioned in the same breath. But in visiting Renegade Rum, a new distillery and entirely new concept in producing rum, we were reminded more of making a fine wine, than rum. With a new distillery set amongst cane fields on the north-eastern part of the island, and a concept akin to some of the finest wine making, Renegade Rum is making waves in Grenada and quite possibly the rum-world.
We just returned from a trip to the spice island, Grenada. We were seated on the plane next to a young man who mentioned he was going to Grenada on business. Ironically, he was the Sales Director for a new rum on island named Renegade Rum. It was a fairly long flight, so we had ample time to find out more about the brand and their unique concept. He was nice enough to take our information and after arriving in Grenada, we received an invitation to visit this fairly new facility. There we met Ruari, the son of Renegade Rum CEO Mark Reynier. He walked us through Renegade’s vision and unique approach to creating their rum and offered us tastings of their current rums.
It was extremely interesting to hear how Renegade applies the same methodology and philosophy of the world’s greatest vignerons – terrior – to create this most unusual rum. The French wine term terroir refers to the interaction between the soil, microclimate and place on a vine or any growing plant. Starting from scratch on Grenada, Renegade had the chance to identify a wide variety of terroirs throughout the island, each one influencing how their cane grows and the flavors they can derive from it.
The Renegade Cane Rum Vision.
Reyniers’ vision to create a terroir driven truly natural rum comes in part from his background in wine and his success with the concept in another spirit, whiskey. Specifically, Waterford Whiskey. In creating Waterford Whiskey, the focus is on the barley, whereas, with Renegade Rum, the focus is on the sugar cane. No molasses, just pure sugar cane. As stated on their website, “Is it possible to create a rum that can be taken as seriously as the world’s greatest single malts? Using terroir as our building blocks & sugar cane only, the source of rum’s natural flavour – no molasses – that is what we seek to answer.”
Renegade Rum currently grows 6 varieties of sugar cane planted in 12 different sugar cane “farms” on Grenada. Each farm or “terrior” was carefully chosen based on different elevations and topography and each terroir produces a cane whose expression carries its own unique flavor.
The Rum.
Expressions from several of the different terrior’s have been bottled without being aged, and make for a very unique tasting experience. These expressions are labeled with the farm name and are considered Pre-Cask. We wondered if our palates could discern the difference between terroir expressions, and we could! Several Pre-Cask rums have already won awards: Pre-Cask Hope was awarded a Double Gold medal from the Fifty Best. Pre-Cask Lake Antoine (Lower) and Pre-Cask Nursery were awarded Gold medals.
In addition to the Pre-Cask expressions, Renegade has recently released their first aged cane spirits: ÉTUDES. There are currently two ÉTUDES available: New Bacolet and Pearls – each named for the farm that produced the sugar cane for these aged expressions.
Aging for the two ÉTUDES occurs in premium French and American Oak casks, before being bottled naturally at 55% ABV. Approximately 6,000 bottles of each are being released worldwide.
The Cane Code.
Another thing that stood out to us is Renegade’s level of transparency in the production and content of their rum. Just one case in point, the Cane Code. Every bottle of Renegade Rum has a Cane Code on the back of the bottle. When the code is entered on the website, it will open up a wealth of great information and graphics regarding the origin of that particular rum. It even includes a sound clip from the field where this rum was harvested! Try it! Input the Cane Code from the photo above here.
Eventually, Renegade hopes to produces Cuvee’s or blends of the expressions. Given the number or terrior’s and types of cane, this could lead to unlimited new blends.
There is so much more to the Renegade Rum story and process that we literally cannot cover it in one small article. We encourage you to explore the story and the detailed info on their website. We’re looking forward to learning more about Renegade Rum as they continue to develop and to experiencing more of their rum. As our tasting at the distillery proved, Renegade Rum is not just unique, it is good!
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