If the history of Bologna is more than 3 centuries old and its rum almost 130 years old, it is necessary to underline its quasi-religious and unique link with the production of white rum. It would indeed be necessary to wait until the end of the 90s for the first rums to be put into aging, and almost a decade before being able to taste them…

A daring bet, that of taking one's time, where so many others preferred to rush it, by mainly buying stock from other colleagues. No doubt out of respect for their ancestors and their already sharp vision of a notion of terroir, for a few years now, enthusiasts have been given the opportunity to taste the first old rums from a 3-century-old distillery, and thus to see it grow over the releases and see it flourish. More than a chance, a piece of history in its own right.

We will return to the history of Bologna soon; in the meantime, let's start by cross-tasting some of their releases, with the volcanic slopes of La Soufrière as a backdrop, where the cane flourishes bordered by the Caribbean Sea.

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Bologna VO / 41°

Why not 40° or a classic 42? Surely to split the difference... Bologne VO rum is a blend of old rums aged in oak barrels for 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 6 years and more, so technically well above a classic VO (3 years minimum).

The color of this rum is a very light amber tending towards gold, very bright and classy; the legs are relatively wide, the same goes for the tears, very round and strolling.

On the nose, the rum offers a delicate palette of dry notes, vanilla and oak, spices (cinnamon), in a vaporous, warm, and buttery atmosphere, of a well-controlled simplicity. The dried apricot takes its place, swaddled in lightly grilled woody aroma, with once again this vanilla which does not make the nose more complex but which gives it a certain elegance. With rest, dried, crystallized and sweet strawberry appears, very classy.

On the palate, the attack is sweet and honeyed, with a beautiful concentration: on apricot, candied orange, in a melting and always elegant atmosphere, buttery and silky. The vanilla is there too, supported by grilled tannins and spices that bring tone, also grilled, from sweet and warm cinnamon to gray pepper, in a rather gourmand and empyreumatic profile, and even vegetal with a certain bitterness that appears gradually (memory of cane) but with restraint… The finish is moderately long but warm and persistent, on vanilla, grilled and even slightly bitter notes, but always in a beautiful control that commands respect, and which delivers a rum with a capital R, and especially a beautiful H.

Very nice success that gives the impression of a respected product: an agricultural rum that shines by its simplicity (especially on the nose), understand that it tells a story with accuracy and authenticity, in a rich and very interesting mouth. We even forget the low degree. Note: 84

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Bologna VSOP / 42°

The VSOP technically imposes a minimum age of 4 years, but Bologne offers here a blend of rums of 4 years, 5 years, 6 years, 8 years and more, and therefore once again well above the genre.

The color is slightly more contrasted, more sustained we would say, with a beautiful amber tending towards bronze. Oilier too, more mature, where a crown of fine droplets gradually gives way to greedy and languorous legs.
On the nose, we are once again on a worthy representative of agricultural rum, without frills and elegant: the cane is highlighted, we imagine it harvested at maturity and bathed in a delicately burnt barrel, bringing to the distillate light toasted and classy notes (blond tobacco), vanilla, cocoa, and rounded exotic fruits, between candied and compote. A rum where the cane is queen and where the terroir seems to be put in the front line, with a field that we imagine ardent and dried giving its wild herbs all the richness required to shine in broad daylight.

At this moment, and with the result that we know, we cannot help but think of Neisson and its rums so fair and authentic. Bologna, the Neisson of Guadeloupe? With the rest comes out a tangy and fresh side (citrus zest, yellow lemon) or perhaps iodized (salt air), in any case it is a very beautiful journey that this VSOP offers us, very respectful of the genre, agricultural in the heart. And at the moment when the cocoa warms our thoughts, meticulously mixed with citrus fruits, we start to dream of a few more degrees…

On the palate, it is rich and tasty, and immediately silky: the rum caresses the palate, embraces it in a vanilla and fruity kiss with a suave and warm intensity, candied; with delicacy and balance, but also with excitement: thus blending exoticism and salty air, electric zest and mature cane, warm spices and toasted oak, cocoa, in a melted and consumed whole, encompassing and reassuring. All the aromas, all the scents seem loving and inseparable, and work in a salutary and unctuous synergy, and even juicy (iodized). The empyreumatic notes marry wonderfully with the trade wind freshness of a salty kiss, in an embrace prolonged by the fire of candied ginger, a promise of length.

The finish is long, bubbling and vibrant, and the rum becomes a little spicier and saltier like the taste of tired skin. Where persistence rhymes with insolence.

A very beautiful rum, in love with its roots and delivering an unstoppable and so affordable oral pleasure. Are you looking for a VSOP agricultural rum that transcends the genre? Look no further, you have surely found it. Rating: 86

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Bologna Old / 42°

Here is a blend of rums that have aged for 4, 5, 6 and 8 years in barrels. An old rum that on paper is not so different from VSOP, at least according to the information found on merchant sites.

Amber/copper color, always elegant, delicious and unequivocal.
On the nose, the rum seems this time more timid, reserved, as if tired of its previous excesses? In any case it is finer and moderate, some would say more complex. We find this dry and woody nose, vanilla and delicately grilled, acrid too, always with class and without excess, cocoa, controlled and proud. The rest will have the good idea of ​​concentrating the aromas, of magnifying them, giving it a second wind (iodized) much more lively, almost rough (on the mature and tangy citrus with this heavy smell before deliquescence) pressing the cinnamon and exotic fruits, dried on a warm and slightly humid ground. Complex, that was the word, it was still necessary to give it time to spell it.

In the mouth, it is warm and generous, melted and melting, almost syrupy; again like a lush and sticky kiss, one more embrace, but this time in control and in age, sweeter (fruity/candied) too, with certainly less passion but more slowness, where maturity and wisdom shine and eclipse eagerness (and no it is not a cougar rum, I see you coming!). A feline rum… with class of course. Concentration, generosity, it always goes very well under satin sheets, it is honeyed and we could almost hear a classic air resonating, something nostalgic.

The orange peel is salty, rough, and the bitterness points its sting, it almost breaks but it holds. The dried apricots finish and last in a mouth that is not necessarily very long, but welcoming and sincere, generous and open; it is silky and spicy, but decidedly very fruity. We would like more length, a fireworks display as a finale, but that is not the goal of this rum, which from beginning to end speaks of age and maturity, which will also last in a persistent and pleasant comfort. If the cellar master had wanted to show his mastery, he would probably not have gone about it any other way.

Extra old and therefore more complex, less fiery and wiser, but still with this beautiful aromatic concentration in the mouth. Another beautiful journey, that of time passing, and which takes with it the memories darting from previous adventures, abandoning summer in favor of autumn. Each moment has its rum. Note: 85

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Bologna XO / 42°

This "extra old" rum comes from a blend of 6, 8, 10 years and more . The pinnacle of Bologna, understand the oldest, and therefore not necessarily the best (because we too often tend to believe that the older it is, the better it is).

We go from amber to mahogany, with an even more intense color, but still as resplendent and luminous, with the crown drawing a pearl necklace joining the abysses in a final dance; a slow, certainly.
On the nose, a step further in maturity, with this time an even rougher, raspy smell, let me explain: imagine a citrus fruit, say a lemon, or even an orange (in the logic of things and time which preserves fruits more than it acidifies them), abandoned in a heated living room; our orange therefore, will become withered, then will begin to decompose, delivering with its last breath a sour, acrid and acidulous aroma, which we imagine opulent and swollen, not necessarily unpleasant but particular. Here we are. We are at the gates of the afterlife when an orange dies, when it becomes bloody, when its skin and soul turn red until it bleeds and it begins to grow down before sinking definitively.

As if, tired of having remained motionless - and in no hurry - in her cursed boat, she had decided at that moment to give everything, to concentrate everything in a juice recalling her fruity and tangy youth, and her life spent waiting and becoming bitter, bleeding; and insidiously recalling her direct family relationship with the tree: from the leaves (bitterness) to the branches breaking, wobbling under the weight of her brothers. Crack, the branch breaks and the fruit falls to the ground and a few days later, you have this feeling in your nose. It is not unpleasant, far from it, it is mature, broken, acid-opulent, and it is in some way the logical continuation of the VS, giving a VSOP, then the old rum already a little more related to this XO. So we wonder what comes next, not necessarily reassured but curious, but we cannot forget the fusional link between all these rums, to varying degrees, and notice an end that is near and imminent, because we arrive at the apotheosis, there under our noses and soon, surely, in our mouths. Like in those American series with multiple seasons, where you see the actors grow up, until they become old enough to die; it is not necessarily beautiful or ugly, it is a window on life and it oozes humanity, wisdom, and madness too. But Bologna has only recently started making old rum, and reaching this stage is either a consecration, or madness, or error, and therefore inevitably life, and humanity.

At this point, and with the rest generously offered by the slowness of my words, the rum has not really evolved, or has it become more complex? We have blood orange that has poured onto an aged barrel, where the classy tannin mixes with acidity, not without recalling some spicy and intense encounters (ginger, cinnamon), honeyed memories and lascivious embraces and salty kisses.

We will not speak decently of mouth but of palate given the apparent roughness of the building. Because there is some in the mouth, as the nose suggested; there is acidity, but beyond that, there is grip , it makes you think and it is probably not dead, and rather interesting. We expect stickiness but no, it is oily, tending towards acidity, and therefore little to do with previous rums; the orange offers us a flashback, from zest to candied, from its youth to its apotheosis, sealed in marble and crystallized in sugar. We remember the good memory of its trade wind and iodized ease, of its spices encountered in a hurry behind the trunk of an oak surely 5 generations old, and of the darker and more armored aftermath. We are more in the vortex than in the complex, it lives and it comes, it dies and it exhausts. The finish doesn't catch on, or doesn't catch on anymore, because when you embrace life while caressing death, you are resolutely between two worlds, and you miss something. But this rum haunts us, leaves a tangy citrus taste, slightly bitter, mixing touches of blood and salt, comforted by the warmth of the barrel and its woodiness.

Between life and death, maturity and incontinence, or the story (and life) of an Orange. Surely the end of something but the beginning of an adventure, as if this XO, without realizing it, had sown seeds that only need sun to grow, with the experience and wanderings of a young past to give life to a golden future. Note:  82

How pleasant and enriching it is to see a distillery evolve, especially when it is several centuries old. It is a gift to discover these old rums, to see them grow and go from child to adolescent, from adult to ghost, to end up tirelessly reviving only fragments of memories to the oldest among us, and one day through the most nascent who will survive us . We will undoubtedly talk about Bologna again, tomorrow and beyond.

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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