New Releases From Mark Reynier’s Renegade Distillery Spotlight Terroir Driven Rums

(Photo: Renegade Distillery)

The Renegade distillery focuses on terroir-driven rums from different farms on the Caribbean Island of Grenada. Last month four inaugural rums were launched highlighting single farm origins: Hope, Lake Antoine (lower), Lake Antoine (upper) and Nursery.

The person behind this new line of rum is Mark Reynier, who has quite a reputation for pushing the concept of terroir in the spirits world. Reynier applies the sensibilities of viniculture such as varietals, biodynamics and an appreciation for the land’s influence on flavor (terroir) to distillates like whiskey and rum. Before starting Renegade, Reynier began the terroir experiment with Bruichladdich Distillery in Islay, Scotland and Waterford Distillery in Waterford, Ireland. Both of these distilleries focus, in some way, on single farm origins of select barley varietals including heritage grains.

According to an interview with The Spirit Business, Reynier wanted Renegade to have the sugarcane highlighted as the primary flavor component, which required a worldwide search for a location that would make this achievable. Grenada was chosen as a place where there was an opportunity to start something fresh. Part of this mission involved building a whole new state-of-the-art, $25 million distillery in Grenada from scratch, complete with a biomass boiler, steam-generated electricity and an environmentally conscious wastewater treatment plant. Reynier remarked, “It’s a game-changer as a distillery, it shows you what you can do; this is how a distillery should be – it is possible.”

New Releases

I was lucky enough to be provided some samples, courtesy of Renegade, to better understand the differences in the terroir of the rums. The two samples I received were Hope and Lake Antoine Upper Crater Lake South. Both used unaged, fresh cane juice and are 50% abv.

Each of the bottles comes with a canecode which provides basically everything you would ever want to know about the rum from the type of sugarcane used to the type of still, the terroir classification and even a soundscape of the individual farm where the sugarcane was grown. This is rum at nerd level max with facts about each individual rum.

Hope

(Photo: Renegade Distillery)

The Hope single farm origin was made with the Cain (or B77 602) varietal of sugarcane and used a pot still for distillation with the terroir classification, Boulder. There were scents of mellow grassiness on the nose with hints of vanilla. The taste was of allspice and sweet Vidalia onion. The allspice carried through into the finish along with earthy notes. It came off as quite expressive, because of its savory qualities and was overall enjoyable.

Lake Antoine

(Photo: Renegade Distillery)

The Lake Antoine – Upper Crater Lake South single farm origin was made with the Purple Tallboy (or B69566) variety of sugarcane and used a pot still for distillation with the terroir classification Upper Crater Lake South. This one smelled of caramelized or brûléed pineapple, green onion and had a pickled quality to the scent. The aromas were reminiscent of spring and fresh rain. On the palate, there was the taste of poached pear. It developed from sweet to bitter and finished with a vegetal bitterness likened to eating fresh sesame leaves. Overall, quite nice and very smooth with an interesting balance of fruit and grassy, vegetal bitterness. 

The rums have similar notes to traditional rhum agricoles. The vegetal, grassy, sweet onion flavors carry through in both rums but they are distinct in their own right. The Lake Antoine version comes off a little fruitier and the Hope variation is a little more earthy.  It was fascinating to compare and contrast two rums from the same island, both of which were unique spirits that are definitely worth a try. If you are into mezcal or bacanora, then you should definitely check out these rums.

The aroma and tasting notes are the opinion of the author.

Keep a look out for our house reviews of these rums.

Here at The Daily Pour, we do more than write about current events in spirit. We are the only media property reviewing spirits and aggregating the scores and reviews of other significant voices in the spirit world in one place. If you’re interested in getting a shot of spirit in your morning email, sign up for our Whiskey Deal of the Day Newsletter