New craft distillery: Richland Rum

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:05 pm

From a home of moonshine: Single Estate Old Georgia Rum

A very interesting new distillery - Richland Rum - is certainly worth a visit. According to their appropriately simple website:

1. They grow their own cane, converted to syrup for fermentation
2. Use classic, onion head alembics with a classic worm condenser
3. Single day batches
4. Aged 3 to 4 years in new "toasted and charred" oak
5. Bottled in house, claim of no blending

Of course they promote their "premium cane" (whatever that is) and the use of special water from the "Georgia aquifer" (which I hope is not adjacent to the hog factory farms or frackers. Do take a look:
http://richlandrum.com/home.html

And of course I could not resist requesting a sample for testing and tasting by one of you - anyone in the States have an interest? Lemme know.

Hello from The Rum Project, the largest and most active non-commercial and independent rum review and appreciation forum on the net. We get about half a million hits a month, and continue to grow.

At the Project we have always been HUGE backers of pot stilled craft spirits - particularly rum. From what I can gather from your website, your methods are superior in every way, but as always the proof is in the bottle.

What I\'d like to propose is this: if you can send a reasonable sample or bottle for evaluation, we would be pleased to have one of our well known member/reviewers give it a full and honest evaluation and review. Now of course, I absolutely can\'t and won\'t guarantee the result, but based on what I know of your process, I would expect a very interesting rum.

If you're game, we\'re game. Kindly advise.
Capn JImbo
The Rum Project

mamajuana · Post by **mamajuana** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:06 am

I'm always down to sample American craft rum I can't get a hold of up north. Sounds interesting enough the 4 year age statement in particular on rum that has not been blended and came of a pot still? This could be quite decent... hell I would buy a bottle off them if they shipped. One of the key factors on a rum such as this will be the cut off the still and if it was carefully monitored to get just the best portion. The new oak barrels is also quite bold on a rum such as this.

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:45 am

Exactly, and know this...

In over eight years, we've only accepted two bottles, and only of spirits that we simply couldn't get otherwise. In this case I've proposed a bottle - but - not one for my benefit, but to be delivered to one of our esteemed members. With the Project as middleman only neither the Project or the member is in any way obligated, period.

Mama, you're on - all I want is absolute and unbiased honesty in your review and I already know I'll get that. If this distiller believes in his own product, he'll send one. If not, his loss... tx.

sleepy · Post by **sleepy** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:54 pm

Living in ATL, Richland is readily available At ~$50 and is a favorite at upscale bars. I'll taste again, but very much a "whiskey-style" rum with initial and finishing harshness that I didn't appreciate.

As I said, more to follow....

Count Silvio · Post by **Count Silvio** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 9:31 am

Richland Rum have the potential to make truly excellent rum. I've tried examples from them ranging from 1 week old, 1 month, 18 months and the final version which is aged further (about 3-4 years).

In my opinion the new barrels they use are too much for the rum and it doesn't actually benefit from a longer ageing, at least not at this stage. Time will tell if even longer ageing has a different effect.

The final version is a little too woody and astringent in comparison to the less aged rums I tried. The 18 month old rum was by far the best product out of them all with a wonderful "just right" flavour profile.

I have urged them to experiment with used oak barrels.

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:31 am

Some interesting quotes from their site:

"Richland Rum has only two ingredients: pure sugar cane syrup and natural water. The syrup is made from sugar cane grown at the proprietor’s Estate – Vennebroeck – near Richland, Georgia, USA, augmented by pure syrup sourced locally and from Louisiana and Florida. Richland Rum is an all-natural product that does not contain any preservatives, coloring, artificial flavoring or additives of any kind."

Made from syrup, not fresh cane juice.

"The Virgin Rum – the ‘Hearts’ selected from each distilling run – is pampered to maturity in new, American white oak barrels, made, toasted and charred to order, for a period of 32 -36 months, before becoming ‘eligible’ for bottling."

Although new charred oak is the law for American bourbon, almost all aging of rum is achieved in used bourbon barrels, with a very few distillers also using very expensive used French oak (ex-sherry). This distiller took a big chance, namely that the additional expense of prepared brand new oak would - like bourbon - be able to turn out a palatable product faster, in two to four years.

All small distillers face the same dilemma, which is to produce and sell new young product, while somehow managing to tie up huge amounts of capital for say seven to ten years before selling a drop of aged rum - without knowing whether the aging succeeded or not! Ouch. Most do this by buying a hybrid column still with the idea of selling white and specialty spirits, while attempting to set aside distillate for hopefully decent aged brown spirits.

Richland thought new charred oak might do it, and it just may have. While the Count felt that the product was over oaked, Dave Russell - who has an excellent palate - gave it a top review, as did the respected BTI at "91" (links below). Russell's especially is a must read. Time will tell, but this would appear to be a great start for this interesting small company. I love their 1000 liter classic, onion-headed copper alembics, and wish this distiller the very best...

*******
http://www.rumgallery.com/richland-rum.html
http://www.tastings.com/scout_spirits.lasso?id=206820

Count Silvio · Post by **Count Silvio** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:45 am

Oi! What happened to my post there Jimbo?

Oh well must have been a glitch in the matrix!

Here goes again: I don't necessarily disagree with Dave Russells review for the most part but I would say the rum is more than mildly oaky. Dave Russell, who also has an excellent palate as opposed to mine(?), apparently also rates Papas Pilar quite highly. A product, which I personally find to be a bloody joke.

Quoting BTI here or anywhere has little value as if you have a look at what they rank so highly you'll find the usual sugar and additive bombs, that everybody here dislikes, like Zacapa scoring a solid 95, Oliver & Oliver creations like Quorhum 30 Aniversario and Puntacana scoring 94 and 93 and no rums in the database scoring under 80 by the looks of it (How does this fit in the bell curve? Just sayin').

*******
Capn's Log: Although ratings were factually reported, it was their palates that interested me. Both Russell and the BTI were reviewed long, long ago (in the Reviewer's Reviews, stickies in this section). In those analyses, I very much disagreed with their ratings distribution - actually irrelevant here - but not with their palates. I respect the Count's palate as well but since neither Russell nor BTI panel reported over oaking (and very much liked this rum) the jury remains out, my main point. Sadly, there are few real reviews of this rum. If any here wish to review the current finished product, please do so...

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:57 am

Another interesting quote, via Russell:

"Stills - Richland employs two beautiful all-copper, gas-fired Pot Stills of 1,000 Liter capacity each, hand built in Portugal. The stills are ‘played’ separately every day, meaning their raw spirit output is not blended. Rather, the hearts of the virgin rum are sent directly into the aging barrel at full strength; between 118 and 125 Proof. The heads and tails are re-distilled after mixing them in with the next day’s wash. Heads and tails are removed monthly to avoid any build-up of undesirable congeners. Mr. Vonk adds: "In short, our Rum is distilled once, in the sense that we do not do ‘stripping runs’ or ‘spirits runs’, while, in reality, a small portion of it – the heads and tails – are re-distilled."

. . . . . . .

These are simply lovely and traditional Portuguese hand hammered stills, that represent hundreds of years of tradition. They are simply beautiful. Condensation is achieved - again in classic fashion - with a simple worm in tub (used also by moonshiners).

Richland's process is also unique in that unlike many home or small distillers, they do not use a fast "stripping run" (a crude run meant to capture lots of alcohol), followed by a second "spirits run". Instead they perform a very slow and careful distillation to capture the hearts - the removed heads and tails are also captured, but are added to the next batch.

Since the heads and tails build up with each successive run, Richland disposes of them monthly (keep in mind the stills seem to be run every other day, meaning that the heads/tails are wasted approximately every 15 runs). Interesting, and surely a rum worth tasting I'd say.

Carry on.

CJ

ps. the sharp-eyed may have caught onto the claim that each of the two stills are "played" every other day, and that the output is NOT blended, but ends up in it's own new toasted barrel. The distiller claims each new barrel is used but once (for about 3 years), then recycled/sold to a beer brewery. On their return, they are resold for display in restaurants, et al.

*******
http://www.rumgallery.com/richland-rum.html

JaRiMi · Post by **JaRiMi** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 7:27 am

These Portugese stills are becoming very popular - Strathearn has the same kind, and if memory serves me right, so did Eden.

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 11:46 am

This Portuguese company is very well known...

http://www.copper-alembic.com/ns/

...definitely worth a visit...

mamajuana · Post by **mamajuana** » Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:44 pm

While Capn, they would not offer us anything apparently. They better have shipped California the Best they had! The reason why? I ordered two bottles they sent there. Full review to come I hope before my trip to St. Lucia. This better be the best American Craft rum based on what I paid or compared to what I have ever had! Both bottles included tasting glasses from the company for the ultimate experience.

mamajuana · Post by **mamajuana** » Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:41 pm

Some further info that may interest some:

The gift set as I was told includes the following information with the two commemorative glasses:

A pedigree tracker. This traces the exact roots the rum took from cane to bottle. It shows the cane sources used, distillation information, aging time in barrels, and barrel number. This is very transparent information to gauge the rum.

Also a Statement Of Authenticity, hand signed by the Distillery’s Proprietor.

mamajuana · Post by **mamajuana** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 7:17 pm

I got my two bottles of pedigree number 44. I have contacted the distillery for more information about this barrel. The rest of the packaging is a few days behind which was shipped separately.

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Fri Nov 20, 2015 8:41 am

Mama... I really look forward to your experience, especially as I trust you will look past the hype and realize that a pot still - however romantic - does not make a fine spirit by itself. There are so many other factors as we all know. The juice, the prep, the fermentation, the yeast, temperature and flow control, cuts, composition of batch (ferment, high and low wines), ad infinitim.

This is a relatively new distiller who lacks very many years of trial and error. Whether Richland gets lucky and skips the experience to a fine product is a turkey shoot. He's got the right equipment, but...

Waiting for your report

mamajuana · Post by **mamajuana** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 6:34 pm

Here is the pedigree info I obtained on this specific barrel thus far from the distilleries proprietor Erik Vonk.

The contents of your barrel - #44 – was fermented from June 12th through June 18th, 2012 and distilled and barreled on Tuesday, June 19th , 2012. The barrel was selected on August 3rd, this year, bottled on August 10th, 2015 and yielded 302 bottles.

Not too bad a 7 day fermentation and 3 years 1 month and 17 days in the barrel.