Penny Blue XO Rum (Batch #2)
Penny Blue XO Mauritian Rum (Batch #002)
Time for another Rum review. I found myself on a working, quasi-vacation earlier this month and decided to crack open a bottle of Rum that my brother gave to me, Penny Blue XO. The Penny Blue is a Mauritian Rum. For those that don’t know where Mauritius is, don’t feel bad as I didn’t either until I went there on my honeymoon nearly 10 years ago. Mauritius, the former home to the dodo bird, is a small island about 600 miles east of Madagascar. The island is full of beautiful beaches, wonderful people, and most importantly, tasty rum. This particular bottle comes from Batch #2 with rum that was aged in Whisky barrels (30%), Cognac barrels (30%), Bourbon barrels (30%) with the remaining (10%) from the previously released Batch #1. We don’t know the age profile of these casks, but the website does say that the oldest rum in the mix is 11 years old.
ABV: 43.2%
How it smells…orange citrus, floral, vanilla, caramel
How it tastes…sweet caramel at the start followed by orange zest with light molasses at the end. The finish is more of the traditional sweet and vanilla flavors of rum.
Price…since it was a gift, I’m not sure but online I’ve seen it $60-$90
Rating...🥃🥃🥃🥃
Final thoughts…..this was a delight. Overall, this is very smooth and not overly sweet. The molasses note adds some depth but doesn’t dominate the experience. Bourbon drinkers who want to get into rum should enjoy this sip. The flavor profile matches up with a lot of bourbons given the vanilla, oak and citrus notes, providing enough familiarity while also offering something exotic and fun as well. This could very easily be a 4-season sipper given its versatility. I’m not too knowledgeable about rum prices and what great value is for that category, nor do I really know what this particular bottle costs, but taste wise, it’s easily a 4x 🥃.
Sipping it reminded me of the two weeks my wife and I spent in Mauritius on our honeymoon. We didn’t visit this particular distillery during our stay, but we did visit another called New Grove, which ended up being my go-to drink on the rocks (the scotch and bourbon options on the island were pretty limited back then and very expensive). I think I still have some of the New Grove Rum on the back of my shelf so I may have to do a review of that one as well, or better yet, a blind taste-off against the Penny Blue.
For those that are really interested in the cask math, Batch #1 was made from 14 casks, 10 Whisky Casks and 4 Cognac Casks, ranging from 4-10 years old. So that makes 71.4% (10/14) aged in Whisky Casks and 28.6% (4/14) in Cognac Casks. As Batch #1 only represents 10% of Batch #2, that makes the final breakdown of Batch #2 equal to 37.1% Whisky Cask aged, 32.9% Cognac Cask aged, and still 30% Bourbon Cask aged. Who knew math could be so much fun?!
To take it a step further, I’d be interested in knowing what type of “whisky” barrels they use for the aging. I assume it’s either a scotch single malt or grain whisky or perhaps Canadian. Given that they don’t use “e” in “whisky”, I’m assuming it’s not Irish. The cognac casks bring in some spice, including the orange citrus and the floral nose, but the bourbon cask influence shines through as well with those bold vanilla notes. It looks like they are up to Batch #6 now, which is more ex-Whisky dominant (58%) but brings in some ex-Sherry casks as well (5.6%). I might have to add this bottle to my ever-expanding list of annual releases to keep up to date with….
