Ferrand Plantation O.F.T.D. Rum, 70 cl

Product Information

Took me a few sips to get some of a flavor profile because in each sip, once the taste buds detected something, my throat and tongue got a sound thrashing from the 69% ABV (138 proof). Transformácia cukru na alkohol je vyvolaná pôsobením kvasiniek. Fermentácia môže trvať od niekoľkých hodín (v prípade ľahkých rumov) po niekoľko dní (v prípade zložitejších rumov) až po niekoľko týždňov. Honestly I'm not really into overproof rums. I've tried several and most of them are like extremely potent hot sauces (something else of which I am a connoisseur)...all burn and little to no flavor. Nose: Coffee and orange – dark spice blend can’t tell if it’s cinnamon, all-spice, cloves – Not quite molasses but a darkened caramel. A candied pecan nuttiness, but not sweet.

All measurements below are in standard units of grams per hectoliter (100 liters) of absolute alcohol. (g/hL AA) Rum from Fiji has been all the rage among the rum geeks in the last few years, so it’s no surprise that Maison Ferrand wanted a piece of that action, if the category were to continue catching on. This is a pretty standard Fijian rum, a blend of pot and column still rums aged tropically for 2-3 years in bourbon casks before the usual 1 year of finishing in Ferrand casks in France. It’s lightly estery, with a moderate level of dosage.

Start building a set…

O.F.T.D. officially stands for Old Fashioned Traditional Dark but if you ask any of the seven collaborators who were in the room when this blend was born, they’ll tell you it really stands for something else that was exclaimed when the winning rum was tasted… Why is there no dosage in the OFTD? With respect, you may well have asked why is the Jamaican rum there? Or why we selected the level of caramel for bitterness, or that particular ABV? Every rum is the product of hundreds of decisions dictated by the question: Does it enhance the rum?” Fast forward nearly two years to the very same room where the group had deliberated that December. Mrs. Wonk and I are preparing to run the gauntlet, tasting all nine high-proof rums. Several are ultra-high ester rums, doubling down on their palate-destroying power. To anybody but a hardcore rum geek, this might seem terrifying. For me, these are the sort of moments that make rum writing worth all the effort. It’s critical to understand that “ester” and “volatile element” measurements don’t tell you anything about a rum’s flavor profile, however. Martinique rhum agricole is also high in volatile elements, yet tastes very different than Jamaican rum, also known for high levels. Ester and volatile elements counts are about intensity, not flavor notes. So what has all the fuss been about? Well firstly I don’t think the intention of this rum was ever as a sipper. I’ve no idea how old the blend in this rum is but I’d be very surprised if overall the blend is over 5 years old.

This rum comes in at 69% ABV which, in my opinion is too strong to consume neat. My previous experience with overproof rums had been limited to Lemon Hart 151 rum (75% ABV) which I really enjoyed when blended in equal parts with a 40% dry rum (Newfoundland Screech), diluting the concoction to a robust (57.5% ABV) but enjoyable and flavourful blend.

The Bar Classics

On the nose of this one there’s plenty of brown sugar and some grilled pineapple, although it’s not particularly punchy—I genuinely think that if you gave this to someone blind and told them that it was simply “aged rum,” they wouldn’t suspect that there had been actual pineapple involved. On the palate I’m getting some roasted cane flavor, and a bit of that “raw” booze I was tasting in the Original Dark, paired with citrus, green apple and a puff of smoke. It honestly seems like a moderately aged rum that could be used in practically any application, rather than doubling down on drinks that already call for pineapple elements. A pot stilled, lightly aged rum at 150 proof invites obvious comparison to the venerable Lemon Hart 151, a mainstay of the Tiki canon. However, the French oak aging, some of it in ex-Cognac, suggests a different flavor profile. The rum is described as “quite heavy rum, focused on body strength, alcohol and chocolate notes, thanks to higher alcohol level.” Before getting to the exactly what type of rums are in O.F.T.D. (finally!), a few notes of explanation on what follows: Pôvodne boli všetky rumy destilované v malých bankách. Dnes sa však väčšina rumov destiluje kontinuálne v stĺpcoch. Táto moderná destilačná metóda, ktorú Kuba prvýkrát prijala v 19. storočí, umožňuje rýchlejšiu a plynulejšiu výrobu. Destilácia v kotli je stále dlhšia a ťažko zvládnuteľná, ale stále sa praktizuje na Jamajke, na Barbadose, v Svätej Lucii, na Haiti a v Guyane. Zrenie

It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that the casual rum drinker and the serious rum geek often have wildly differing reactions and estimation of a company like Plantation Rum. This is a complex topic; one that takes into account ownership, secondary finishing practices, legal lobbying and transparency in labeling. Suffice to say, the Plantation brand has long been something of a lightning rod for discussion among rum devotees. It is interesting that Plantation have dropped the Trinidad rum entirely from the blend. Personally this is a good thing as I don’t really rate the modern Trini rums at all. With the advent or more advanced laboratory techniques, it’s possible to measure the concentration of other volatile elements in addition to Ethyl Acetate, such as higher alcohols like propan-1-ol, butan-1-ol and butan-2-ol. This provides a more comprehensive reading of how much flavor adding components are within the rum. If you really want to geek out on exactly what these are, read this, although it’s far from light reading. Fun fact: The Martinique AOC actually specifies minimal volatile element levels.

Which could perhaps be construed as a criticism. It isn’t. I have argued on numerous occassions about rums being viewed as sipping rums and mixing rums. Many feel that a “mixing” rum is an inferior product. It’s not I genuinely believe that some younger rums such as Myers’s, Woods 100 and Appleton’s Signature Blend (V/X) simply work much better as mixers than they do sippers. I do not think this makes them bad in anyway and it is not a slight against them. Update, March 2021: Plantation tells me that the current blend no longer contains Foursquare rums in it. Also, Mr. Seale disputes that 13-year aged Foursquare was used in the original O.F.T.D. blend. I have left the original component description provided to me for historical context below] The 1990s see Alexandre Gabriel combing the Caribbean in search of the best rums of the region. Plantation is born: an artisanal range of rums from the great terroirs of the tropics. Fifteen years of dedicated rum-making later, in 2012, Alexandre is awarded Master Blender in the “World’s Best” rum awards, wins the prestigious GOLDEN BARREL AWARD and was named Distiller of the Year by THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.