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Mount Gay Rum - The Oldest Rum Brand in the World

Mount Gay XO

Emerging from the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, the coral island of Barbados has symbolized luxury, glamour and revelry for centuries.

This haven of white sand, sun-drenched fields of sugar cane and cascades of the purest crystalline water is also the birthplace of rum. Mount Gay Rum, the finest, oldest brand of rum in existence, has been produced on Barbados with passion and unparalleled excellence since 1703.

Expertly fashioned from rich sugar cane and with the pristine, coral-filtered water native to the island, Mount Gay Rum is a sumptuous, inimitable expression of the Barbadian art of living.

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Master Blender of all Master Blenders: Don José Navarro Part II

Jose Navarro

Everyone who talks about Havana Club (and knows his Rum history) can’t help but to think of that other brand that originates from Cuba: Bacardi. These two names are linked through history. When Fidel Castro got power in Cuba in 1959, he shortly after that confiscated all companies on Cuban soil.

Bacardi was already known outside Cuba and had copyrighted their brand and logo, which is why Castro was not able to sell his Bacardi Rum outside Cuba. To make things a little bit easier, Castro changed the name into Havana Club, a name formerly owned by the Arechabala family.

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London's Whisky Shops

Big Ben

London as a travel destination does not necessarily conjure up images of whisky immediately to most of us. There are, of course, no distilleries as such to visit in town and even the Young's Brewery, situated in Wandsworth for hundreds of years has moved onwards out of greater London.

But a multitude of fantastic whisky shops combined with great old pubs where to relax and down a fine dram make London a well worthy place for a whisky aficionado to visit, if you ask me. This is why myself and a fellow whisky aficionado "Smoke on the Water" travelled to UK in February, with a set goal of visiting every worthy whisky shop in town in the brief time of two days.

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Master Blender of all Master Blenders: Don José Navarro Part I

Havana Club Maximo

(This is a translation of an article I made about Maximo in the Netherlands. I changed the article a bit for you Rum lovers at Refined Vices).

It doesn’t often happen a Master Blender of a Rum company comes to the Netherlands. If one of the biggest in the world is doing this, we could conclude the Netherlands is becoming an interesting country for the Rum producers.

This meeting was organised by Pernod Ricard to introduce the Maximo Extra Anejo Havana Club into the Netherlands.

At this moment it is the most expensive Rum in the world that is still in production.

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Interview with Angostura

Giselle LarondeThe following information may be slightly outdated, but in 2001 I was in closer contact with people at Angostura Ltd. and asked them a series of questions. This was following my visits to their site at the outskirts of Laventille, Trinidad on earlier times.

My contact person was Ms. Giselle Laronde-West, the Communications Manager of Angostura Ltd. (for those who do not know, she happens to also be the 1986 Miss World, and a University of London graduate).

I based my questions on an article published in a US website at the time (no longer found by google at least), written by Mr. Bouchard. I personally noticed some inaccuracies in the article, and wanted to verify the facts. I mentioned on my intent of publishing the answers in a form of an article, just to be totally fair.

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Decadence and Debauchery in Foggy London Town Part I

Rum Old Fashioned

The airport was cold and quiet with only a few tired looking people quietly making their way to the right gates in a silent and restrained fashion very typical for Finns. Having woken up at 4am that morning, with barely any sleep during the previous night, I could easily relate to them.

The airport monitors were all showing blue screens of death, something very reassuring you always want to see before you're supposed to be getting on a computerised flying tin can with not enough parachutes for everyone. The plane was scheduled to leave at 6:45 to Stockholm where I would have to catch another plane that would eventually take me to London.

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Single Malt Whisky: To Age or Not to Age?

Single Malt

Bill Lumsden, the head of distilling and whiskey creation for Moët-Hennessy Louis Vuitton's (LVMH.PA) Glenmorangie and Ardbeg single-malt whiskies is a character.

Not that the whisky business isn't full of creative, irascible, intriguing folks in charge of keeping our glasses filled.

But having played a preposterous party game with Lumsden and others until 3 a.m. one night last May and drank from the spring that supplies Glenmorangie, I feel confident that Lumsden will have no problem getting his portion of the angel's share of whisky when he is in heaven.

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Second Renegade Rum Release

Renegade Rum

Earlier this year the first small-batch limited edition rums by Renegade Rum Company were released that included two vintages from Guyana and one from Jamaica and Panama.

The 2008 collection of the Renegade Rum Company's new bottlings have been released. This is the second limited small-batch release from Renegade Rum Company so far where each of the six bottlings is from a single estate and single vintage featuring also rare stocks from stills that no longer exist.

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