Rum Fest Recap: Domestic Rums Surprise
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jun 2, 2009 6:00PM
We attended Bottom Lounge's second annual Rum Fest Saturday, which owner Mike Miller hosts in conjunction with Edward Hamilton of the Ministry of Rum. We avoided the Malibu, Bacardi and Tommy Bahama tables, since they're the devils we know, in favor of rooting out some odder notions.
With over 150 rums available for sampling, odds were good that we'd find something worthy of notice. Even we were shocked to find the two brands that most impressed us hailed from... Colorado and Tennessee? Rums are now reaching for the craft distilling bandwagon, and Montanya and Prichard's are two very good entries. Montanya (based in Silverton, CO) uses Hawaiian sugar cane and fresh, clean snowmelt water, distilled in a hand-hammered alembic copper pot still. It's then aged in American oak at high altitude, which causes more distillate to run through the pores of the wood. This results in a smoother tasting rum. Montanya's white rum was one of the smoothest-tasting white rums we've had in some time.
Prichard's owner Phil Prichard says that his distillery in Kelso, Tennessee is the third-largest licensed distillery in the Volunteer State. "There may be some larger ones out in the woods the government might not know about," Prichard joked. Prichard sources his sugar cane from Louisiana, distills using copper pot stills and ages his darker rums in new fresh-charred white oak barrels, like bourbon. Unlike bourbon barrels, which hold 50 gallons, Prichard's barrels are 15-gallons. He loses more "angel's share" to evaporation, but the proofs are more potent. Prichard's Fine Rum is bottled at 80 percent barrel proof, using a blend of rums at varying alcohol levels to get that magical 80 proof number. His marketing materials are aimed at the Jimmy Buffet and modern country music crowd. Unlike Buffet's Margaritaville rum or the Kenny Chesney-sponsored Cruzan rum, Prichard's rums — even the flavored ones — are all high-quality.
Montanya rums are at Sam's and Binny's. Prichard's might be harder to find, but both Sam's and Binny's can get you an order.