Bayou Spiced Rum, Made in Louisiana, Handcrafted, Pot-distilled and Gluten Free, 40 Percent ABV, 70 cl

Product Information

If SPI Group or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets. The purest expression of the rum is the unaged Bayou White, which shows the real spirit character on which the aged expressions build complexity through the wood. Bayou Reserve uses a blend of barrels between two and five years old, which brings excellent smoothness to the spirit. Above this sit Bayou’s single-batch rums, which are treated to a particular type of barrel for their entire maturation. Not many people know Louisiana is the fifth-largest producer of sugarcane in the world. It means Louisiana grows more sugarcane than all the Caribbean islands put together,” says Bayou Rum’s master blender, Reiniel Vicente.

The local terroir helps the brand’s master blender, Reiniel Vicente, make Bayou’s range particularly special. Vicente has a long experience in the industry. Since 2013, he has impressed the founders of Bayou Rum with his rum-making know-how and expertise.Nosing Bayou Select Rum is quite a surprise. Some of this rum is up to 3 years old but I suspect a lot will be much younger. Even if it were a 3 year old rum I wouldn’t expect a nose quite as rich and “aged” as this one. It has a really warming, sweet chocolate like theme running through it. Spicy yet comforting tones of oak from the ex-bourbon casks give it an extra layer of complexity. There is a slight briny/herbal note similar to Chairman’s Reserve – but a touch sweeter, with less vegetal notes. The second distillation in the pot still is where the essence of Bayou Rum is crafted by hand. “In the first hour of starting the still, we’ll be tasting the spirit every 10 minutes to define where to make the cut,” says Vicente. “Once we have the heart, the best spirits we can, we dilute it down to 60%-65% ABV and then, what’s very important is selecting the right casks.” Rum maturing in barrels Bayou Select Rum is a fairly standard dark/golden brown colour with orange/reddish flashes. Coloured? Yes without doubt.

Sipped, Bayou Select Rum isn’t as impressive as the nose. Having said that it is not a disappointing experience. It is still more than decent for such a young blend. It’s drier though and has a lot more oak. The sweet chocolate notes are now more of a bitter burnt caramel or unsweetened cocoa. It is also slightly “odd”– in that it has a kind of sweet note to it which I can’t quite place. Again this may have something to do with using sugar in the distillation rather than purely molasses.

This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. In the UK Bayou have two of their range available – Select and Spiced. The US also get a Silver and a Satsuma flavoured rum.

While so much rum is produced in industrial column stills, everything at Bayou is made in pot stills one batch at a time from the best, locally sourced molasses. Vicente calls the quality of the Louisiana sugarcane “amazing”, and says: “From the beginning we’ve had a partnership with MA Patout & Son – the oldest operating sugar mill in the USA, who’ve been going since 1825. We work very closely with them. They save the batches of molasses that are richer, with more fermentable sugar, and send them to us.” Mixed with Lemonade or tonic it is perhaps slightly less convincing but it does add a very distinctive flavour to your drinks. Bayou Rum also distills exclusively on copper pot stills, which is a key distinction. These stills produce a spirit referred to as “heavier” by distillers and spirits geeks, with more delicate congeners–flavor compounds, basically–left in the resulting spirit. It’s a less efficient, but more flavorful method that preserves more of the flavor of the Louisiana sugar cane. So with that said, let’s jump into tasting the core Bayou Rum lineup. All four weigh in at 40% ABV (80 proof). These single-batch rums are aged in rye whiskey barrels and red wine casks from Napa Valley. The brand has released three- and five-year-old expressions of the latter. At the top of the range is the Bayou XO Mardi Gras, which spends a year in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks after five years in Bourbon barrels. It has a really nice balance – chocolate, oak, plump raisins, some banana cake and just enough of a herbal note and a touch of spice to make things more interesting. More complex and rewarding. It has interacted with the casks really well and has nose way beyond its relatively young years.We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries. The purest expression of the rum is the unaged Bayou White, which shows the real spirit character on which the aged expressions build complexity through the wood. This one is a nice sipper, and would potentially make for an interesting old fashioned. Definitely the most complex of the Bayou Rum aged expressions.