A Peek at Upcoming Plantation Rums at Rum Renaissance 2015

Within the rum world, Plantation is a dichotomy: A well-regarded purveyor of rums from around the world, but which makes no rum itself. A company with solid, readily available expressions that also continuously dabbles in special releases. A subsidiary of a well-regarded French Cognac producer, with a larger than life (and often shirtless) brand ambassador from Seattle.

Plantation inspires fierce loyalty among the rum crowd, due in large part to frequent limited releases and a strong outreach to rum aficionados like myself. Most recently, Plantation hosted breakfast at Rum Renaissance in Miami, where they shared details about upcoming releases. Invitees included all the Rum Renaissance 2015 judging panel, as well as a few other folks with strong ties to the rum community. I scored an invite and was thrilled to find myself sitting poolside on a hot, sunny Miami morning among so many well regarded rum writers, including but not limited to Robert Burr, Peter Holland of The Floating Rum Shack, Matt Robold from RumDood, Paul E. Senft  of Rum Journey, Bob Leonard of Bahama Bob’s Rumstyles, as well Tiki luminaries including Marie King (Tonga Hut) and Suzanne Long (Longitude), and a whole slew of other rum luminaries.

The welcome drink of choice was simple–Plantation 3 stars over ice. As the catered breakfast started up, guests gravitated towards a pineapple smoothie station and, nearly to a person, “fortified” their smoothie with a healthy pour of Plantation 5 from Barbados. Once settled in, Plantation vice president Guillaume Lamy launched into his presentation, with this factoid: Plantation currently has 5,000 barrels of rum in their inventory, primarily from Barbados. (The Plantation 5 Grande Reserve, the workhorse of the Plantation lineup, is sourced from Barbados, so no surprise there.)

With the preliminaries covered, Guillaume turned to recent Plantation activity. First up was an update on Stiggins Fancy, a pineapple-infused rum created as a one-time, limited release of a 600 bottles for the 2014 Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Reaction to the Stiggins was immensely positive, and the very few bottles that made their way into private hands are highly coveted. Proceeds from this release were used to fund two bartender scholarships.

At the breakfast, we learned semi-officially (I’d heard prior rumors) that the Stiggins would become a regular part of the Plantation line.  Even more exciting, we breakfast folks got to experience Stiggins deconstructed, i.e. tasting the component elements prior to final blending, distillation, and aging. Starting with special Queen Victoria pineapples (flown in at great expense for freshness, rather than the more traditional shipping via slow boat), the rinds are separated from the flesh. The rinds are then macerated for eight weeks in 110 proof Plantation 3 Stars rum, which we sampled from a hand-labeled bottle. Although a bit more potent than the 3 Star I’m used to, it was a bit of an eye opener to see how much pineapple rinds can add to a rum.  The rind infusion, heavy with pineapple oils, is distilled again to create a pineapple “essence.”

Meanwhile, a batch of Plantation Original Dark rum from Trinidad  is infused with the pineapple flesh for three days; at this point, another hand-labeled bottle with the infused original dark appeared for our sampling pleasure. It was about what you’d expect a pineapple infusion of Original Dark to taste like, so no great surprise there.

After blending the rind essence and flesh infusions, the resulting mix is aged for two months in used cognac casks — medium toasted so as to minimize wood flavor extraction that wouldn’t mesh with the pineapple notes. Our third tasting was the final Stiggins product. Even though I’m sure everybody in attended had already at least sampled it several times, the pour of Stiggins was met with many smiles.

While enjoying our deconstructed samples, we learned that in February of this year, Plantation produced an additional 6,000 bottles of the Stiggins Fancy, which will be exclusive to the US market. Guillaume said that going forward, Plantation was planning to make 36,000 bottles twice a year, which should help the Stiggins shed its “unobtanium” nickname.

One of Plantation’s most rare, sought-after releases is the 1998 Guadeloupe, an agricole-style rhum that benefits nicely from its French vacation in used cognac barrels. Thus, when Guillaume brought out another hand-labeled bottle proclaiming Reunion Island (an agricole producing island), a ripple passed through the crowd. The bottle contained rhum aged for 12 years on Reunion Island, then shipped to the Plantation facility in Cognac for finishing in cognac and Madeira casks. And yes, it was delicious as expected, the grassy agricole funk elevated by the refined touch of sweetness from the Plantation finishing process. Guillaume said that a relatively small number of bottles had been made–with only 144 allocated to the North American market via SAQ in Canada.  A new unobtanium is born.

The next (rum-based) surprise was poured from another hand-labeled bottle indicating a blend of Jamaican and Guyanese rums – in and of themselves, a lovely pairing, but not particularly swoon-worthy, until Guillaume mentioned the blend had been finished in an Arran Whisky cask, giving it the smokey, peat character that you either love or hate (I love, thankfully).

Last, but certainly not least, we were treated to a special bottle, brought from Denmark by Johnny Drejer– A rare 1999 Plantation Jamaica port cask finish. The expected Jamaican funk was there, finishing with a typically sublime Plantation finish. As things were wrapping up after the final tasting, a bit of shirtless activity ensued…photos are withheld here to protect delicate eyes.

The three days prior to the breakfast, the RumXP judges underwent three days of rum tastings to select the top rums submitted in different categories. Although many of the judges were present at the breakfast, some of us didn’t yet know the results, so we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Plantation had earned four “Best in Class” honors and another four gold medals. With an ever-changing lineup of top quality, limited releases and their ongoing great engagement with the rum community, it’s easy to see how Plantation has become a big dog in the high-end rum category.