There is Lontan…

[ author: Admiral Ambic ]

First note of a Savanna rum on this site and first rum from Reunion Island, it was about time. It is signed by an old sea dog who is making his debut here: the Admirable Amiral Ambic. And what better than a Grand Arôme to start with? This Savanna has fermented for a long time (15 days) for a concentrated result that displays a non-alcohol content greater than 800g/HLAP (Hectoliter of pure alcohol), the famous esters, where agricultural rums are often around 225g and old rums at 325g and more.

Price : around €50 for 50cl cask strength (62°). Limited edition of 844 bottles.

Age : 2001 vintage aged 7 years in Cognac barrels; put into barrels on 11/27/2001 and bottled on 04/02/2009.

It is very rare to find Grand Arômes rums that are aged, especially in Cognac barrels and bottled at natural strength... These rums are generally used in cooking, for baking and for mixing blends (assemblies) given their 'extreme' aromatic concentration (we then speak of esters or non-alcoholic compounds). This concentration is due to a long fermentation of a mixture composed of molasses and vinasse ('dunder' in English, i.e. the residues of previous distillations), a fermentation that can even last 30 days for some Jamaican rums, where most rums 'make do' with 24/48 hours. Jamaica has always been famous for its heavy profile rums that can display an impressive non-alcohol content of 1500g (in the case of these rums, the dunder is also added with organic elements that are left to macerate in pits designed for this purpose for 3 years, often outside the distillery). Some Clairins can also compete in terms of concentration with, for example, Casimir and its more than 1000g. But let's make way for Savanna rum and the prose of Admiral Ambic.

Let's observe this liquid... This intense color, a very deep blond caramel, a light chestnut honey. It's beautiful. Not to mention the smell that literally invades the room . After having him calmly lick the sides of the glass, let's contemplate his... Tears? Legs? No... They are rather claws, which cling and slide with an agonizing slowness. I won't be able to wait for them to reach the bottom of the glass, it's a fact: patience is not my strong point.

My nose rushes over this abyss of scent. Too soon perhaps? A puff of alcohol burns my sinuses.
What intensity, what a delicacy, what a monster! The rotten apple paralyzes my senses, the impression of smelling a very old calvados… When aerated, the apple remains present, candied as desired, like a tarte tatin whose apples have been flambéed with rum. It's creamy, it's full of butter, and I love it!

As the air mixes with the liquid, my dear and tender signals to me the arrival of this smell of cooked artichoke that many find in grand arôme rums. All joking aside, it's not a perfume, it's rum, for God's sake! Yet one might think that it is a perfume... Intense, exotic, powerful.

Immediately a green olive flavor invades my mouth, the retro-olfaction is brutal, immediate, without the slightest pity for my delicate organism . I tell myself that I won't be able to drink anything after that. Candied lemon, wood, it's incredible, this power... It's magnificent, it's everything I want in a rum and that until then only certain brut agricultural rums or certain Velier bottlings had been able to offer me. I take a series of slaps and I ask for more. This divine liquid erects my taste buds into a Greek temple before collapsing them, reducing them to mystical ruins. I will never be able to drink anything again, the trauma is too great for my mouth. As if everything had collapsed inside me. I salivate, my taste buds seem to dive into the depths of my throat, right down to my stomach. This rum has invaded me completely, has enslaved my senses... My flesh will forever have the taste of this nectar, that's for sure. The experience is too intense to be fleeting.

To precisely identify the aromas developed by this liquid miracle, it would be necessary to dilute it slightly. No. No matter the aromatic precision, I want to enjoy its power again and again, the feeling of total crushing and submission imposed by this brute. Is it perhaps unhealthy to drink this? Some people may go to confession after having had this experience, this moment of transcendence during which we say to ourselves "God, what next? I am in heaven, I am touched by grace, and it is this rum that did that".

The finish is dry, raw, clearly on the artichoke , this time for me too. Again. Each sip is a renewal of the experience, the mouth does not get used to it. It is still as intense. Again. Fuck, my glass is empty. Too bad, all this has already gone too far. I do not really feel the finish anymore. Disoriented by this empty glass, I do not think of anything else: fortunately I have some left. Why is this glass empty? Fortunately I have some left…

Of course, this damn empty glass is sniffed for a long time. The smell of bagasse, of fermented cane reminds us that this rum was originally Lontan blanc. An exceptional, unique white rum, transcended by years in a quality cask and by respect for its original alcoholic strength.

Drinking such a rum, just like some Velier, brings us to this conclusion: Why damage products of such quality by adding water? Such concentration, such power, must be respected. Rum becomes religion, becomes penance, becomes transcendence when it is imbued with such mastery. Find it, drink it, respect it and regret it, because it is with whips and boots that it will crush you to the bottom of your armchair, leaving you as sheepish as a child who has been slapped on the hand, eyes bathed in tears but fingers covered in jam in the mouth.

Review courtesy of DuRhum.com.

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