English Harbour 5 Year Old Antigua Gold Rum 70 cl

Product Information

English Harbour rum is, safe to say, one of the well-liked rum brands that seems to fly under the radar. Despite the recent rum boom, Antigua is often forgotten when it comes to rum destinations and/or rum producers. Even the rum geeks I’m well acquainted with can be guilty of this. The Miami Rum Renaissance Festival is a good place to find out about new rums, and an even better one to sample those that have been around, but which you didn’t even realize were on the market. One such find for me at this year’s edition was English Harbour’s 5-Year and 10-Year reserves, as well as their richer sibling, the 1981 Vintage. Forgetting about Antigua is an understandable fault, though. This is largely due to the makers of English Harbour, Antigua Distillery Limited (ADL), being the only rum distillery left in Antigua. Plus, other Caribbean islands or countries like Barbados, Martinique, Guyana, Cuba and Jamaica seem to get most of the attention. In addition to being the only rum distillery left in Antigua, their production isn’t large. They currently only have one still, which they bought in 1991. It’s an all-copper column still from John Dore. According to the UK Importer and respected rum enthusiast, Roger Barnes, “Two of the columns were cut in half so it could fit under the roof. This technically makes their John Dore a three-column still.” This leads me to think that the John Dore originally had five columns. Today there’s no sugar cane plantation in Antigua instead the molasses is bought from Dom. Rep. and Guyana. After arrival it’s fermented in open-top fermenters were the added yeast marries with wild yeast. Antigua Distillery was incorporated in 1933, having officially opened its doors in 1932. Fourth generation members of four of the founding families are still involved in the running of the business – namely Farara, DeFreitas, Diaz and Fernandez. “Paul Farara is chairman of the board – he’s second generation and in his nineties,” Francis said. “His father was one of the founders, and his niece Lisa runs the Quin Farara rum shop in St John’s, the last functioning one that our founders started.”

I’d say that 40% of our total rum sales is consumed in English Harbour alone in a 6-month period – by Antiguans and visitors. There are a lot of bars and restaurants there, as well as a couple of hotels, and you have the ships coming in. That whole sailing culture is really a rum culture – sailors used to get their tot of rum. When you look at the spirits consumed in English Harbour, rum is miles ahead of everything else. I think any bar in England would be proud to serve rum that has ‘English’ on the label. So it is quite disappointing that over the years we haven’t had that uptake. I think it’s just because of the distribution issue and not having enough resources in that distribution team. But going forward, I do see all that changing.” English Harbour is actually the name of a port/town on Antigua, West Indies. Rum is as closely associated with England as it is the Caribbean so this is also quite a good marketing ploy. I’m sure many a proud Englishman has bought this rum on name alone. The rear of the bottle gives some details on the legend and heritage of this rum. The mid palate evolves into an array of well balanced and defined spices and oaky overtones. These nestle wonderfully alongside the fruitier notes. Ginger, baking spices and a touch of chilli pepper heat and a layer of complexity.

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The molasses-based rums (named for the body of water and village at Antigua’s southernmost extremity) are produced by Antigua Distillery, the same company that also makes Antigua and Barbuda’s most popular dark rum, Cavalier, as well as Nut Power—a peanut-flavored rum cream made with the tree bark (and reputed sexual stimulant) known as bois bande. Unlike those products, the reserves and 1981 Vintage are exported to the US, UK, and elsewhere. English Harbour Rum at the 2013 Miami Rum Renaissance Festival | Credit: Erik Ebright, LargeUp.com See also Tastebud-Tantalizing Trash Can Drink: Refreshingly Different! Is English Harbour a Dark Rum? English Harbour 1981 reminds me a little of Barbancourt in its overall delivery – it exhibits an almost cognac like smoothness and has sweet almost wine like notes. It is super smooth and there is virtually no burn on the finish.

When finally poured the English Harbour is a deep mahogany. It looks warm and inviting. The nose is quite subtle, despite being a relatively young rum their isn’t much of an alcohol smell in a sense it doesn’t smell “boozy” or harsh like some young rums can. The nose is sweet molasses, a little orange its smell is almost as sweet as some of the South and Central American premium sipping rums. Update March 2013: This rum has, of course, been superceded in my affections and appreciation of quality, which was inevitable given how many rums I’ve tried and written about. I still think, though, that if one was to make any list of the top five rums in the world, this one should be somewhere on that list.

Review and Tasting

The Antigua Distillery has been producing rum in its own right since the mid fifties. 1981 is a significant date in Antiguan history as it was the year the nation gained independence from the UK. I assume that this event influence the production of this rum. The brand also took a bit of a hit when rum bloggers started putting various rum through hydrometer tests. This was a result of rum fans finding out a lot of rum had added sugar. Some bought hydrometer tests for home use while some were properly lab tested. Any brand that was found to have any added sugar was then instantly disliked, mainly because rum drinkers were angry or disappointed at brands for not being honest. A lot of brands claimed to not add any sugar when asked. The hydrometer tests tested their honesty, but as mentioned before in Facebook rum forums, the home hydrometer tests aren’t accurate. However, over the past few years Antigua Distillery seem to be moving a little with the times. They have begun introducing “Cask Finish” rums similar to the likes of Foursquare. Whilst a secondary maturation period does probably explain Foursquare’s recent output a “Finish” is probably more suited to these offerings from English Harbour. English Harbour Extra Old Rum is ideed a premium and highly praised rum that has received numerous accolades in the Aged and Premium Rum category. It is a connoisseur's drink that is made from a blend of carefully selected rums that have been aged in oak barrels for up to 25 years. The result is a rich, smooth and complex rum that is bursting with flavors of caramel, vanilla, and spice.

As I mentioned in my “ Classifying Rum” article, Colonial Classification states that former English colonies are stereotyped to use pot stills and/or traditional column stills to produce funky and full-bodied rum. This may be true for former English colonies like St. Lucia, Guyana and Jamaica, but it’s not true for Antigua, which is a former English colony. English Harbour does not use pot stills; they never did, which is why they don’t get to produce funky rum. In my opinion, their style of rum is a lot closer to Foursquare’s. Sipping English Harbour Antigua Rum Port Cask Finish is as easy as falling asleep (apologies out there to any Insomniacs). The 46% ABV is a really good point to appreciate this rum at I feel. I can’t say its the best because I can only really dilute it down not up but it works very well. ENGLISH HARBOUR RUM is considered by many experts to be one of the finest blends of both Dark and Light Rum distilled in the Caribbean today, benefiting from multiple awards. In 2006, Forbes Magazine voted English Harbour Rum one of the ten most remarkable rums. This rum is after distillation aged in former used bourbon barrels of American oak which are charred inside for between 10 and 25 years. To enhance the oak taste is a handful of oak chips added to each barrel. After the aging it’s blended and bottled at ABV 40%. If you didn’t know any better when nosing the rum you would assume this was something from Barbados. It has all the classic hallmarks of the lighter Bajan style. Vanilla, caramel and a some very nice well aged oaky notes. It’s all very well balanced and very inviting. I might be detecting an extra sweetness level but this may be just because I know its there. It’s still very good nonetheless.

English Harbour 10 Details

they moved to the new built distillery on Rat Island in St. John. Then they had a 4-column copper Savalle Still. At that time the molasses was bought locally. This rum must be the best you can get to this ridiculous low price. I haven’t found anyone that can compete so far. In 1991 they replaced the Savalle still with a new 3-column copper John Dore still, and just three years later the English Harbour Rum was released named after the harbour in the south of the island which Admiral Horatio Nelson and the English fleet used during the 18th century. English Harbour Rum is made using only the finest ingredients, including locally sourced sugar cane and pure water from the island's natural springs. The distillery uses traditional methods of production, including pot stills and open fermentation, which gives the rum its unique character and flavor. English Harbour Antigua Rum Port Cask Finish is English Harbour’s standard 5 Year Old aged in ex-bourbon casks, bottled at 46% ABV and finished for six months in a Port Cask.