2020 Habitation Velier Renegade 3 Year Old Cask Strength Grenada Pure Single Rum (700ml)

"A umami bomb" - 88bamboo.com

Another anticipated release from Velier, especially for rum chasers looking for something different. "Renegade" continues the Habitation Velier bottlings, being the world’s only range of Pure Single Rums, each a reference point to each distillery’s unique pot still. Hence, like "Single Malt Scotch", the term "Pure Single Rum" defines a rum from a single distillery, distilled exclusively in pot stills.

Established in 2020, the man behind Grenada's Renegade Distillery is Mark Reynier, better known for reviving Bruichladdich on Islay and developing the Waterford Whiskey brand out of Ireland. A chance holiday in Grenada made Mark fall in love with the island. The ethos for the project echoes what started with the aforementioned brands; Terroir! Taking a look at Renegade's distillery bottlings you'll see that each is segmented by the single estate from which its cane is harvested from. His rums are all done agricole style using fresh pressed sugarcane juice and ageing is done at the distillery on the island itself. Given the great friendship between Reynier and Velier’s Luca Gargano, Mark wanted Velier to have the honour of being the first ever to independently co-bottle (Velier’s preferred lingo) Renegade’s rums.

The result has been described as memorable to say the least, not only distinctive, but also incredibly powerful with a fascinating complexity in what has been summed up as "... a umami-bomb; a real bouillon cube of a rum, and on top of that it does this little magic trick of contrasting a great thicker texture with those multi-dimensional sweet, umami and savoury notes." Velier's Renegade comes aged in a combination of French and American oak casks and is bottled at a natural strength of 55% Alc./Vol.

Other reviews... Ooh this is surprisingly mellow - the savouriness and umami flavours are still present and accounted for, but here it’s alittle more tannic, but it still throws us some spiced honey alongside the olives, baked cheese and mushrooms. Little bit of dark chocolate. The tannins tense up more to give it quite a fair bit of dryness into the finish... Yet another twist! Here it’s more of a herbal jelly, rather grassy and of herbal dried roots, spiced honey and then it’s back to the oaky tannic dryness. At every leg of the tasting, I found myself delightfully greeted with (positive) surprises, each adding more nuance and complexity, with the utmost intensity that you wouldn’t believe can still remain cohesive. It’s a wonder how this stays so balanced and also friendly and approachable on the palate. What a stellar, stellar expression, good god! This is one I’m going to remember for a long time! It got me smacked and I was getting everyone to try it. - 88bamboo.co