‘Our First Cask #001’: A New Special Rum Release From the Gospel Whiskey Distillery
(Photo: The Gospel Distillery)
The Gospel Whiskey Distillery, based in Melbourne, Australia, has released a new Single Cask Rum. The rum was finished in a freshly disgorged Straight Rye Whiskey barrel after being aged seven years. This is the distillery’s first release of a rum, Cask #001. The new experimental release went online on Sept. 28.
The Co-Founder Andrew Fitzgerald said, “You can only ever do anything first, once. This Single Cask Rum is exactly that for us – the first barrel we filled at our first distillery in South Melbourne, Cask #001. Everything at South Melbourne was so hands-on, from re-coopering the barrel and stirring the mash by hand to making all the cuts purely on taste – the end result speaks for itself. While it is bittersweet to see Cask #001 go, I am immensely proud to share it.”
The Single Cask Rum was doubled distilled in direct-fired pot stills from Australian sugarcane. The use of the pot still is said to come through in the taste with characteristics of funk and sweetness. Most of the aging occurred in a re-coopered Australian red wine cask. According to the distillery, “[The cask] had been charred in the alleyway behind our original South Melbourne Distillery, and kept at ground level to ensure a slow, gentle maturation.”
The distillery’s tasting notes suggest a lot is going on with this rum, which includes notes of dried apricot, brown sugar, toffee, crème caramel, roasted hazelnuts, orange marmalade, nutmeg, cinnamon, jasmine and leatherwood honey.
The new rum release is priced at $135 AUD (about $88 USD). However, it does not appear to be available in the U.S. market yet. Available here.
The new rum release is said to predate the distillery’s “obsession” with rye whiskey. The distillery is known for its 100% unmalted rye whiskeys including Straight Rye Whiskey and Solera Rye. Hopefully, this isn’t the last rum for this distillery and more is on the horizon.
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