Grande Réserve

[ 2019 update: many doubts about this vintage, which according to many sources does not exist. There is in fact no written trace of a possible stock of 1960 rum at HSE. The rum used for this bottling would in all likelihood be Courville brand rum ]

After the excellent HSE 1998 single cask, it was time to move on to the next level, and that's an understatement: La Grande Réserve 1960, whose words by Patrick Chamoiseau, stuck on the back of the bottle, already invite you to travel:

"  A century of fine words floats around the Saint-Etienne distillery... Many have begged in front of my hut for the secret of this Gros-Morne rum that the world envies us. They wasted their time. I didn't tell them a damn thing.  " (extract from "Elmire des sept bonheurs. Confidences d'un vieux travail de la distillerie Saint-Étienne" published by Gallimard in 1998).

Price : more than 700€, 70cl and 45°.

Age : unknown. According to HSE the rum would have been distilled in 1960 while the distillery was still smoking (it stopped in 1988) and aged for an indefinite period, sold with the walls to the new management team. According to HSE the rum "would have" about twenty years.

Don't count on online sales sites or even on the HSE website to find out more about this rum, it's as if there was a mysterious air hovering over this vintage (and for this price it's expensive for a draft). Questioned on the subject following the recent marketing of their new packaging, HSE was kind enough to reveal a few secrets...

This vintage was sold with the warehouses to the new management team (in the 90s) who then successfully had it certified AOC. Already bottled, the rum would have lost its splendor over time, HSE deciding since 1998 to re-open all their bottles in order to put the rum back in 3rd passage French oak barrels to allow it to "air" and regain a certain roundness. The rum is thus oxygenated for an average of 6 additional years, before being re-bottled. We would therefore have today a rum that would be approaching 30 years old, with two distinct phases of aging: a first from 1960 to the 80s, and a second from 1998 to the 2000s (for an average of 5/6 years in 3rd passage barrels). Enough blah blah, let's move on to the tasting.

Barely at work, the rum already reveals thick legs that seem to gambol all around the glass, literally taking up all the space until disturbing the moment, until disturbing your senses, mistress of the dance floor. She turns and her amber dress, dark and tending towards ruby, already makes your mouth water, while starting to spread its perfume in the room.

This nose is extremely delicate, even though it is already very present, to the point of invading you and not letting go. Greedy but elegant, we immediately have this desire to bite her beautiful legs that were exhibited before our eyes just a few moments ago, already sparkling… but we savor the moment, with pleasure but resisting… stepping back, smelling, to better jump into a bed draped in satin and lace. The kind ofrumbeauty that reinforces all the carnal side that can evoke the tasting of old rums. We feel the experience, the maturity, the classiness of the most beautiful leathers, of the most noble and flawless wood, and all this impertinent delicacy… exit the smell of freshly pressed cane, hello the years of barrel and the notes warmed and grilled by a blazing sun, by a warm climate; dried fruits (raisins, figs) lightly grilled and very mature exoticism still full ofsugarpleasure, a peachy, almond-like skin, soft and perfumed with island flowers (ylang-ylang), and a casual smell of bubblegum and milk chocolate.

The rest amplifies the toasted (empyreumatic) notes and here we are, still getting to know each other, but this time remaking the world around a cup of coffee, with always in the background this floral perfume which floats in the air and which intoxicates.

The attack is soft, mellow, but gets stronger quite quickly, revealing the impatience of the moment, evoking the amount of time to catch up: we must not hang around and enjoy, again and without headgear, straight to the point . The fruitiness is already fading in favor of a punchy and humid woodiness (licorice, leather), the flowers have faded in favor of tannins, pepper, rough but the fruits come back to seduce us again, one last time, surely before the blow ofgracebitch: grapes always and exotic fruits for a furtive but necessary, caring and liberating kiss.

And this kiss seems endless, as if slightly poisoned, and it is a beautiful death that this HSE offers , tonic and resistant, always on oak, licorice and dried fruits, bitter cocoa, in contradiction with this nose so voluptuous and romantic. A method of seduction already tested and which was already played out in the 60s. One more way to understand that we are not inventing anything and that the past was not necessarily different from today. The same dramas are played out, the same stories are plotted and before as now, we are weak and fall into these ancestral and so… predictable traps.

The empty glass closes on a dusty leather binding and a slight bitterness now seems to resonate even in my mind. The smell will go away quite quickly, leaving the glass lifeless but with the desire to already do it again, to the good memory of a not so distant past.

The nose is as romantic as a seaside sunset and as warm as a kiss pressed against a fireplace. It is stimulating and yet so moving. The kiss, barely pushed further, shows us another side of the rum that becomes more dominant and punchy in the mouth, and which lingers on the finish with fervor and tannins.  

You see the question coming, is this rum worth such a price (€700)? If you have them and want to spend them, why not. The best thing is to taste them first because the disappointment can be steep. This tasting note is like the others, it reflects a personal opinion and cannot be a value judgment, so the rest is the same.

We don't know much about this rum (and before HSE decided to reveal some information we didn't even know anything except this date of 1960), we don't know its age and there are many assumptions. How strange to see so much vagueness around a product sold so expensively; especially since with a lower budget it is still possible today to find rums like the Clément 1952, old Bally and St James from the 40s, 50s and 60s to name a few examples. Some will say that it is not easy to date old vintages, but it is not impossible, so unless you don't want to, why not look?

I was recently told that people who buy this kind of product - not to mention the rich, the elite - don't give a damn about the content because a high price necessarily means quality: the monetary value making the qualitative value of the product...; and to quote again this wonderful example "  When you buy an eau de toilette at €145 for 50ml, you don't ask yourself so many questions!  " It didn't take less to spoil my evening. Nothing new you will tell me, the world of rum would benefit from more clarity, honesty, and we must not believe that agricultural rum is spared, perhaps only just saved, poor us. If you knew... Rating: 88

" A century of beautiful words floats around the Saint-Étienne distillery... Secrets float too. A ball of secrets that connect 1893 to today. The old workers will seem to know them, but I am the only one in truth to count them in my memory ." Patrick Chamoiseau

To help you (and me) find your way around, regarding the notes:

90 and + : exceptional and unique rum, it is the best of the best
between 85 and 89 : highly recommended rum, with that little something that makes the difference
between 80 and 84 : recommendable rum
75-79 POINTS : above average
70-74 POINTS : in the low average
less than 70 : not very good

Review courtesy of DuRhum.com.

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