After nearly a year of waiting and enquiring, I was very pleased when I finally acquired a bottle of this 38-year-old rum distilled at the Gardel Distillery in 1983, bottled by @spiritofrum. It has been sitting at the top of my wish list after having sampled it, and I do want to express a tremendous amount of gratitude to @benoit.bail.danel and @madame_rum for making this possible!

Gardel isn’t a name that traditionally comes to mind when you think of rum, even among that 1% of us who indulge in that category. Located on the eastern-island of Grand-Terre in Guadeloupe, Gardel has been established since 1870, and continues to operate till today as the last remaining sugar refinery on mainland Guadeloupe.

The distillery itself, unfortunately, ceased rum production in 1992, as according to Bristol Spirits. As far as I can tell, the distillate from Gardel were produced from a column still, although whether it was a single or multi-column remains a mystery to me. You might come across some bottles labeled as Gardel rum from 1998, but these would likely have been mislabeled, as many of the 1998 vintages from Guadeloupe have been.

In general, Gardel rums are rather rare, especially the older ones such as the 77 by Silver Seal and the 82 by Cadenhead and Moon Import. So what makes this bottle special is the fact that there has not been a Gardel bottling for 19 years, and to have a single cask of such age and as the sole 83 vintage is very intriguing. It had spent 17 years aging in Guadeloupe, before it was brought to Europe in 2000, re-casked into a ex-bourbon cask due to the terrible condition of the original, and aged for an additional 21 years.

And while the French Caribbean islands are usually associated with rhum agricole, this one is actually a molasses-based rum, which surprisingly makes up 60% of Guadeloupe’s rum production. The GMG marque on the label is also distinctively @mainrumcompany, a broker’s marque for Guadeloupe Main Gardel, rather than a distillery marque that defined its flavour profile.

On the nose, it comes across as a beautiful blend of chocolates and nail polish, with layers of pickles, brine, some raspberry cola. Its actually rather uplifting, quite unexpected from a 38 year old rum. Some preserved orange peel, candy cane and toasted marshmallows. It really struck me how similar it nosed to an agricole, even though this is molasses-based.

The palate is quite a finely balanced, sour wood, bittergourds, iodine, and red fruits all at the same time. Slightly herbaceous, grassy, a layer of crisp sweetness, fuji apples, fresh cranberries, dark chocolates, add a dash of liquorice and leather. The sweet red fruits, hawthorns, extend into that very long finish, with milk coffee, some sweet vanilla cream, ripe juicy red grapes, making the whole tasting experience a true wonder

I really thought that this was a very well-made rum, not just from the point of distillation, but even the idea of transferring it to an ex-bourbon cask, which I think contributed very much to the brightness and vibrancy of the rum. Put simply, this 83 Gardel is a masterful piece of work that is so astonishingly good yet so very under-appreciated. Cheers to @rumperator for bottling such a gem.

Image Courtesy of @weixiang_liu