I’ve covered Kingsbury rums in some of my reviews and they have garnered a fair bit of interest, mostly because there is so little about the Kingsbury brand, nor are its bottles readily available globally. And yet, Kingsbury seems to consistently have some real diamonds in their warehouse that are bottled from time to time, which is why I thought I’d spend a bit of time to delve a little into Kingsbury’s history.

Kingsbury Wine & Spirits Co. was founded in Aberdeen in 1989 by Katsuhiko Tanaka, president of @japan_import_system. Much of its spirits were initially sourced from the likes of Cadenhead and Douglas Laing, but as the demand for high quality, aged spirits increased, Kingsbury began sourcing from a wider variety of brokers and private cask owners. Since its founding, its spirits have been primarily bottled for the Japanese market, ranging from single malts to rums and some gins.

With the rum category, Kingsbury has consistently bottled some excellent vintage demeraras, such as the Port Mourants pictured here from the early 70s. Some of these are true unicorns, and its relative obscurity only adds to its appeal. In actual fact, based on my knowledge of Kingsbury bottlings, demeraras accounts for probably around 70% of their rums, with the odd WIRD, Jamaican, or Nicaraguan bottle. But most importantly from experience, the quality of liquid from Kingsbury is really good, and certainly worth exploring if you ever have the chance to come across one.

Your occasional rum addict!

@weixiang_liu