The Whisky Jury, rum takes pride of place !

3 August 2023 | Interviews & Meetings
The Whisky Jury, rum takes pride of place !
Hello, thank you for granting us this interview. To date, you have bottled more than 60 bottles of whisky, cognac or rum. You are now present in ten countries and you are now establishing yourself more strongly in France as far as rum is concerned.
Can you tell us about the genesis of your project and what led you to expand into the French market?

We started 4 years ago, in 2019. The passion for whisky (and other spirits) goes further back to around 2009. An era where I was able to buy and open many many greats bottlings. Karuizawa, Yamazaki Sherry (was around 70 euro for a bottle at that time), Tomatin from the seventies, Benriach, Glendronach 1972 etc etc… Is was a great time to develop your palate. Around the summer of 2019 I felt I wanted to do something with my passion besides just drinking :-D

It’s a shame we weren’t in France yet. We’re so close from each other and we love France. The wines, the Cognacs, the Champagne, etc… So we’re happy to finally be there. For the moment it’s only our rums.

barrel of Whisky Jury
You started by bottling whisky, why did you expand into rum?

There are so many different styles of rum. That makes is very interesting. Rum never gets boring. And many are so lovely and complex. I have a preference for Jamaican Rums, but I bottle every cask that I personally love. And it can be from any part of the world. I haven’t found good Belgian rum on the other hand.

We note that you have very elaborate labels. Are there themes based on the bottled products?

The animals symbolize the character of the rum, not the origin. I think a gorilla goes very well with the power of a high ester Jamaican. But there are no gorilla’s in Jamaica. See what I mean ? And I love to spend time on the looks and style of all my bottlings. They become part of your interior at your home, so they better look nice.

What is the general philosophy for bottling your rums? Do you only bottle cask strength? What about single cask?

I think 95% is cask strength. But when a bit of water really makes the rum better in my opinion, I have no problem at all with bottling it at the strength that I think fits better. Cask strength is not ‘sacred’ for me. But mostly cask strength works pretty well. I have plans to work on a small batch, but the quality needs to be top. Combining casks only makes sense when 1 + 1 = 3

Among your latest releases is an extraordinary 32 year old Jamaica Hampden C♢H. What are the technical and taste characteristics of this rum?

I can legally not confirm that this is Hampden. It’s a high ester rum, that has softened (slightly) by time in refill wood. But the distillery is still very very recognizable ;-)

There is also a 20-year-old Trinidad, vintage 2003. Today, the terroir of Trinidad is very attractive. How would you differentiate it today from other Trinidad rums on the market?

I pick the casks that I love and I skip the casks I don’t love. For example concerning the 2003 TDL’s: in my view there’s only 1 distillation month of the year 2003 that delivers that fruit bomb experience. I deliberately chose to hide the distillation month on my labels, so I could keep on picking those fruity casks. Sometimes you need to protect yourself. It’s only frustrating when you discover a great casks and all the others run away with each and every sister cask. Cheers!

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Interview by

Matthieu Lange
Matthieu Lange
Conseiller en spiritueux