Not often is a rum released to so much fanfare and anticipation, but the Appleton Estate 17 Year Old Legend (henceforth referred to as the Legend) certainly has very big shoes to fill. It was meant as a recreation of the original J. Wray & Nephew’s “17 Year Old Liqueur Rum”, the very rum that was used by Victor Bergeron, or better known as “Trader Vic”, in 1944 when he first crafted the now iconic cocktail - the Mai Tai.

What makes the Legend so desirable then, is the scarcity of those original bottles, coupled with the mystery as to when its production was halted. But according to Master Blender Joy Spence, the production of aged rums with the original Wray & Nephew marques continued till as late as 1981, and was known as “Trader Vic’s Personal Selection”.

Using archival manuscripts left behind by Spence’s predecessor, Owen Tulloch, whom joined Wray & Nephew in 1945, Appleton began laying down the original four marques in 2005 that were blended together to create this historical rum. These marques remain unknown to us, except that they were 100% pot still distillates, and aged in 10 ex-bourbon casks, with 1,500 bottles produced.

In an interview with Tony Sachs of Forbes, Spence also recounts that one of the greatest challenges of recreating the blend was getting all the little technicalities right, to replicate the exact flavour profile despite the different conditions between 1944 and today. Furthermore, one of the four marques used was extremely unique, having to set the fermentation and distillation in a particular way that is no longer practised by Appleton. Appleton has therefore said this would be a one-off, never to be recreated again.

A first Mai Tai, as the Appleton Legend was meant to be used!

I thought it only right to use the rum in the way it was meant to be, in a Mai Tai. Thus big thank you to Kelvin of Manhattan Bar Singapore for crafting this amazing cocktail, which was wonderfully balanced. But more importantly those ester-y notes of Legend came through in the cocktail, allowing you to not only appreciate all the different elements within, but also the Jamaican punchiness and funk that made this an excellent Mai Tai indeed!

A second version of a Mai Tai.

Before embarking on that Mai Tai journey, I did do a tasting of the Appleton Estate 17 Year Old Legend just as it was, neat, to really understand the liquid on its own, what made it so unique, its characteristics and flavour profile that would make it a legend in its own right.

On the nose the Legend was surprisingly fresh, bright, and was very uplifting despite 17 years of tropical aging. It certainly did not fit in the typical profile of Appleton rums, and the marques used in this blend were clearly of a higher ester level. The saline notes came across perhaps more strongly than the sweet ones, with notes of brine, olives, coupled with a little herbs, thyme perhaps, a sprinkle of bergamot, and of course the orange peel, a trademark of Appleton’s. And hidden in the background were those of preserved sour plums, and cantaloupe notes that I always relate with the higher ester Jamaican rums.

Even on the palate, it was so very different from Appleton’s core range. The initial palate did seem a slight thinner than I would’ve liked, although as it lingered, it became quite chewy and grippy. The oak and vanilla were rather prominent at first, before it gave way to slightly softer notes of chocolate, a bit of those olives and brine again, and even a hint of Jamaican funk that you’d rarely find in Appleton rums. The finish was a slight tannic, although I thought that worked great, giving the rum a variation in texture. There was a bit of lift at the end too as the fruity notes revealed themselves, ripe, red apples, hints of cantaloupe. All those flavours seemed to just go on and on in that very long finish.

But for me, the Legend displayed its best when left to breathe for about 30 mins. It became an incredibly sweet tasting rum, almost candy-like with toffee apples, bananas, cola, and milk chocolates. So much more alike to the Appleton rums that we are familiar with.

Going by its initial profile, it seems as though the Legend has no place in Appleton’s lineup, even as a limited release. Having tasted the 50, the 30, Joy, you can see how they’d fit in, albeit with much more complexity and depth of flavour. But the Legend is an outlier, like those from the Hearts Collection, a bit more punchy, less rounded, and yet more akin to the higher ester Jamaican rums that we have become so familiar with today.

But don’t let that take anything away from the Legend, because on its own, be it neat or in a Mai Tai, I thought that it was very well crafted, although slightly unbalanced when initially poured, but once it opens, it reveals a rather beautiful blend of flavours that I thoroughly appreciated.

Image Courtesy of @weixiang_liu