"Tatanka" is a craft company that produces hand-painted works on various media (rum bottles, cane sugar jars, miniatures, etc.) in a naive art style. Their partnership with the Neisson distillery dates back to 1996 and continues today with the release – in the last two years – of two 4-year-old vintage rums, selected and sold exclusively by LMDW (La Maison du Whisky), as well as Velier for the most recent.

Each vintage is offered in 3 very distinct paintings; In 2010 the bottles took the features of the Amarreuse, the Coupeur, or the Distillerie, and were bottled in 1 liter containers at 46°, limited to 120 copies of each. The 2011 vintage represents in turn the Carbet, Le Galion and the Corsaire, in 70cl bottles, still bottled at 46°, but this time published in 1400 copies (720 for LMDW and as many for Velier).

Neisson « Tatanka » 2010 / 46°

A 2010 vintage rum: aged in July 2010 and released in July 2014, i.e. 4 years of aging. Bottled in 120 bottles of each (1 liter). An LMDW exclusive sold in 2014.

The color is an old gold tending towards orange, with a classy and brilliant appearance; the tears that form take their time, and so do we.
On the nose, orchard fruits seem to come out of the glass, like butter or brioche, warm as good bread, rich with its existential hint of salt. The general atmosphere is fresh but warm, soft and powdery, heady. Even with a 'small' 4 year old, we find this extreme finesse of oak specific to Neisson. A woodiness drawn with a ruler, like a frank line and imbued with realism of an obsessive painter.

Over time, the fruits of the orchard seem to give way to their exotic counterparts, and the apple, barely separated from the tree, in its mature and final flight, seems to turn into a pineapple, before spreading on the ground, offering its distant and exotic scents to the passing of time. Time, precisely, gradually makes these traces disappear, and announces the beginnings of a brotherhood of mushrooms, taking advantage of the opportunity to scratch the fresh earth darkened by majestic trees. A perfect playground, a living and nourishing land, where even the cardamom seems to warm the atmosphere, surreal and changing, and soon stripped of its leathery integument, roasted to perfection, and offered to the layman.

On the palate, it is of a frank delicacy, and once again fresh, where everything seems to condense: peach, apricot, apple, pear, mango, a buccal caress, finely spiced (clove) and powdery, creamy but classy, ​​salty and honeyed. Everything works together, and seems to go in the same direction, that of pleasure. The vegetal, so timid until now, asserts its right of entry and recalls the after alfalfa fields, and a pile of steaming hay, amended with a few aromatics caught in the trap. The rum evolves on the palate like a nascent memory blurs your vision. The end is regular in length, and what balance... what accuracy, and what pleasure. Finely fruity, finely spiced, finely woody, to the lees, and always to the tears.

A cane and exotic Eau-de-vie, at the critical and fateful age, where a nascent rum loses its vegetal panache and grows; a step closer to maturity, helped if ever by a human hand heavy with knowledge and common sense, if not simply genius. This kind of rum is an ode to sugar cane, a sensory journey that deserves patience and a certain contemplation, in all humility. Note: 88

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Neisson « Tatanka » 2011 / 46°

Vintage 2011: still a rum of 4 years old, this time released in 70cl bottles and in many more copies (1400 bottles shared between LMDW and Velier). Aged in July 2011 and bottled in July 2015 (September for the Velier version).

The color is identical, still an old gold with bright orange reflections, oily, classy.
On the nose, the profile appears more empyreumatic, and lets out chocolatey notes that embrace crumbly exotic fruits, and once again faded, made cakey by too much sun, dusty and senile. And always with this impression of aromatic concentration, exceptional for a 4-year-old rum. The woodiness is of a Neisonian finesse, powdery, heady, and citrus peels give a little freshness, for a resolutely empyreumatic, chocolatey exoticism.

In the mouth, it flows naturally, smooth, silky, glossy and sensual atmosphere, where the exoticism is concentrated even in the grooves of an oak barrel, in its fibrous and beating heart, alive. Pineapple, mango, name them, taste them, they are mature and about to disintegrate. Pepper, cinnamon, cocoa, are there to revive them, giving them a second wind, roasted. The finish, because it must be one, is slow and deathly, heartbreaking and exquisite. The aromatic memories leave in a smoke screen (tobacco), sufficiently crystalline, diaphanous, to detect the spinning vines of a vanilla rising to the zenith, and already speaking to us of the future, radiant and radiant, amended by fine oak shavings, a not insignificant contribution of a time, which we too often waste talking.

A rum once again full of common sense and joy, above the trends and fashions, firmly anchored in its roots and in its terroir. A rum that grows in you, with you, and for you. Note: 86

Two rums "in between" ages, between the end of childhood and maturity, where we strongly believe in the future, with an infinite and deceptive conviction, no doubt, but picked at the perfect moment, for a master class. A middle finger to the future, pointed towards the fashion of "always older" and "look at me", with an edifying mastery.

There are still distilleries that believe in rum, in an exceptional basic product, without giving in to a devastating and anti-qualitative fashion; distilleries that go against the grain, living and aiming well beyond demand, in a stratosphere that has no boundaries other than courage and self-denial… And Neisson is wonderfully alone in the world.

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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