Angel's Share Title
Montanya Rum Exclusiva
Montanya Rum distillery located in Crested Butte, Colorado recently celebrated their tenth anniversary. A noteworthy milestone for any craft distiller and would not have been achieved without the guiding vision of founder and owner Karen Hoskins. For her rum, Karen sources sugarcane from Louisiana family owned and operated cane growers who manage the sugarcane from the fields to the mills. After being transported to Colorado, the sugarcane is mixed with water and yeast and fermented for six or seven days. The “mash” is then distilled using hand built copper pot stills and then the rum is put into American white oak barrels that once held Laws Colorado Whiskey for 2-5 years, depending on the product. In the case of Exclusiva, the rum is aged for two and half years in the used American oak barrels and then transferred to French oak casks that once aged Sutcliffe Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and Port wines. After aging for six months the rum is blended to 40% ABV and hand bottled and labeled at the company’s facility.
Montanya Rum Exclusiva
Appearance
The 750 ml level bottle is a heavy glass design with a label loaded with information. Each bottle notes what barrel the product came from, in this case the liquid came from barrel 160. The rum in the bottle and glass holds a golden amber color with a slight rose hue to it when tilting the tasting glass into the light. Swirling the liquid creates a thin line around the glass, that slowly thickens, first dropping a single leg, then after the ring finishes beading up has a wave of legs return to the liquid.
Nose
The alcohol from the rum tingles the nostrils as a wave of strawberry and raspberry notes appear along with caramelized vanilla sweeping through. As the aromas settle a light herbaceous note takes over balanced by earthy mineral notes, dark cinnamon, with just a hint of wood tannins and char rounding out the experience.
Palate
The first sip delivers a swirl of honeyed berry notes, alcohol, and toffee accompanied/balanced by bitter eucalyptus, cinnamon and dried tobacco leaf. These flavors are amplified slightly by an undertone of copper, fresh cane, and toasted coconut. These flavors merge together and dance in a long dry finish.
Review
It was a pleasant surprise when this rum was given to me as a gift. Overall, I enjoy how in some ways it is part of the Montanya rum line and in others it provides a very unique experience. This is no doubt due to the cask it is finished in, but is far and away many steps above what we find in the U.S. craft rum experience when it comes to sipping rums. Exclusiva is the perfect punctuation mark rounding out the core Montanya rum line. However, it is my understanding they are far from finished and will be adding new limited releases to their portfolio in the future. Enjoyable to explore sipping neat, it is divine in a Rum Old Fashioned cocktail due to this it makes me believe it would hold up well in most classic rum or whiskey cocktails.
Cheers!
