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Photo copyright © H.Kristoffersen
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First blended rum from Italian mastermind Velier
Another Velier, you say? Are you favoring certain companies,
you ask?
Well yes … kind of … and then again perhaps not. This is not
your usual ancient Demerara, Caroni or Agricole kind of Velier.
The is the first ever blended rum from Velier and as such
not a all comparable to the Velier rums that I have previously reviewed.
The background story for this rum is actually printed on the
back label, so I won’t be telling it from start to finish.
Short version is: Mr. Gargano was waiting for a shipment for
Caronis and had some extra time on his hands. He had wanted to make a blended
product for a while, and coinsidently he had som old stocks of Trinidadian
Caroni, Cuban and Venezuelan rums.
1+1 = 2 and the Papalin was born.
Here is some more math about the composition of the Papalin (link to source is supplied below):
60% is a young Cuban rum from 1988 which had only matured
for 3 years before being laid to rest in the Velier warehouses in Genoa, Italy.
Because of the embargo on Cuba, he apparantly had trouble finding a use for it.
So it went into the Papalin for lightness.
30% is Venezuelan Solera.
I found a source who claimed that it was a 10 year old solera. It was added to
give roundness and softness to the blend.
10% is a Caroni from
1994 with 18 years of maturing behind it. Pure Caroni power and structure.
42% is the ABV
1 year it rested in old Demerara and Caroni barrels after
being blended.
All in all that sounds insanely interesting to me. I can’t
wait to dive in.
Presentation
Presentation
Visually the Papalin is a bit more of a treat than the
typical Velier Demeraras which are single coloured and very simple.
The box is still quite simple but instead of a single
colour, the box is now characterized by some symbols also found in the official
Velier logo.
The cardboard is sufficiently thick to feel sturdy and the
overall quality feels very nice.
It doesn’t contain as much information as we are used to
with Velier.
We are only given the name of the rum and the name of the
company.
The bottle is a typical black Velier bottle, simple, sturdy
and stark. It is topped off by a natural cork with what feels like a faux
wooden stopper.
The label repeats the symbols from the box and only gives
off little information. Name, proof, content and that is is bottled in Scotland
in 2013
On the back, we find a short story form Mr. Gargano
describing how this rum came to be.
Pouring a glass revels an amber liquid which leaes an oily
film on the inside of the glass. A twirl reveals legs of moderate thickness and
many fast moving droplets.
Nose
Nose
Coming off the block, the nose is very heavy. Leading off
with obvious notes of caramel and banana peel. Followed by leather in cognito.
As the leaders start to fade off a lot of earthy undertones
start to emerge along with a nice amount of liquorice root.
Rubber starts to come out and slowly it rises to become
quite an important part of the mix.
For a while all of the above seemed to blend and mingle and
correlate.
When given time to air a lot, some of the pungency of the
initial scents starts to wear off and very tiny notes oranges becomes
noticable.
As I started to appreciate the complex nose I was suddenly
caught off guard and bombarded with heavy notes of lavender, as a heavily
perfumed ”Thank you very much. Good night”.
Taste
Taste
Taking my first sip revealed a much lighter profile, than
the nose hinted.
On some level it felt very raw, but without ever being
coarse and unpleasant. Something seemed to keep the sharpness in check.
At first there wasn’t anything else than a lot of oak,
tobacco and leather. Old, smokey leather couch.
Examining more closely brought forth remnants of wet
cardboard and olives.
A little further down the road plasticine takes over a lot
of the palate with memories of brand new sneakers coming right out of the box.
It then transforms into wax candles and stay like that for a while.
Somehow the swan song of this rum is made from lavender, as
this is also the last thing to surface on the palate, making me feel that I
just took a bite of Grandma’s lavender soap.
Even though this rum
has a lot of notes that I don’t usually enjoy, the weird combiation of flavours
and their mutual interaction seems to make sense.
However this particular composition might still be a little
too weird and unpleasant for me.
Finish
Finish
With a mouth full of lavender I experienced a rather short
and drying finish, apart from a peppery prickle that seems to stay on the back
of the tongue for a little longer.
But way too soon the Papalin is gone.
Rating and final
thoughts
A very interesting blended rum.
The Caroni-elements are quite clear in both nose and palate,
but they never get to shine properly. Perhaps due to the lighter proof. It does
however have a huge impact on the over all expression.
It has some unusual combinations of flavours and challenges
you a bit when trying to figure it out.
However for me it is quite raw and unpolished, and not an
everyday go-to’er.
It does indeed have a lot to offer, but perhaps it tries to
offer too much of everything. It feels like it tries very hard to be something
very special, but it ends up being quite nice but also quite strange.
The value for money is quite nice. I got it for a little
less than €50 which is quite fine everything taken into consideration. I have
plenty rums in that pricerange that seem awfully boring next to this one – but
also a bit more welcoming and pleasant.
This is the first Velier product which haven’t blown me away
in some way. I would definately like to see more affordable blends from Velier,
and therefore I hope that this is just the beginning. An experiment and perhaps
a building of new worlds.
For a first try I am actually quite satisfied with rewarding
it with a…
Rating: 70/100
… and now I can’t seem to get that lavender soap out of my
schnozzle …
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