Birectifier Analysis Of An Exemplary Peruvian Rum

Plantation Peru 2018 Edition

This rum was quite elegant and I’ll seek out another bottle as soon as I finish this one. It is no beast, but rings all the bells. This was $69 at Astor liquors and quite appropriately priced. It reminded me of the various Plantation rums I drank in the early 2000’s and I was happy to see it wrapped in woven palm leaves like the old bottles.

Something very exciting about this bottle is that in 2019, in a globalized market, I can still find a rum from a country new to me and have my socks knocked off. That is what is so special about the rum category. There are lost rums around the world and luckily Plantation helps us experience them.

We don’t get a lot of answers with this rum, but we get so many fun to ponder questions. Is the quality all in the distillate or the élevage, or both? How do we interpret some of the disclosures? This appears to have been the product of three years of distilling: 2004, 2006, and 2010. Were the ferments 3 days for both pot and continuous column? I really didn’t think you could make something this good in so short a duration of fermentation. Pombe yeast or Saccharomyces? What fermentation complications went through the pot, any butyric acid bacteria?

There is a high likely hood this rum is produced by Ron Cartavio which is quite the sophisticated operation.

Just what exactly do I like about this rum so much? Pin pointing the specific features aren’t easy. There is certainly a quality that I want to see more of in other rums, but what is it? There is a dryness from noble volatile acidity more apparent in the stillage and a unique persistence. The presence of rum oil? What insights on quality could the birectifier illuminate?

This rum is extraordinary. It has a noble structure and wonderful persistence. It is not overly estery, but I’m seeing that as style and not so much any kind of deficiency. The only thing that could enhance experiencing this rum is knowing more specifics about it and where I can visit next time I’m in Peru. 

[Fraction 5 exhibiting slight cloudiness, a sign of full flavor.]

Fraction 1: Concentrated to the degree of non-culinary aromas. Not beastly. Seems to be right where it should be.

Fraction 2: Less concentrated version of fraction 1. No extra details.

Fraction 3: Fairly neutral.

Fraction 4: Detectable fusel oil, but not exactly a wraith. Seems to be right where it should be.

Fraction 5: Visually, a little bit cloudy. This fraction never formed a separating louche like other fraction 5’s from very full flavored rums. There are whispers of rum oil. Lovely persistence on the nose. Slight acridness on the palate which is inline with other rums of its weight class.

Fraction 6: More notes of rum oil, but no notes of esters which were exhausted in fraction 5. Minor gustatory acidity on the palate.

Fraction 7: Very minor notes of noble volatile acidity, almost neutral.

Fraction 8: Something very pleasant I have never detected in an 8th fraction after a fairly neutral 7th. A specific volatile acid? The faintest butyric acid? Could whatever this is be from a unique barrel during aging?

Stillage: There is the slightest sulfurous smell of tufo, but this may very well be the baseline of what is appropriate. There is distinct gustatory acidity as well as what feels like sweetness. I could evaporate the stillage to measure any sugar, but because the fraction 5 is so strong, I’m confident in all their decisions. I loved this rum. An older Plantation bottling from Peru was reported to have have 12 g/L.