Wray & Nephew 17 Yr Old

I don't know if anybody read in Tiki events about us getting a bottle of this rum for the London Luau, but this is apparently the original rum used by Vic in the creation of the Mai Tai.
This has been given specially by Joy Spence, master blender at the Appleton Estate in Jamaica, and she backs up the story of its history.
Apparently it was only recently discovered that they still had a barrel in existence which makes it also one, if not the rarest rum and you cannot buy it.
Well I got to taste it today, wow, it has a punch at 75.2% proof stronger than their 151 and very similar in colour, a deep red.
Tomorrow night we are going to auction of a 1/4 bottle at TVs and someone will also win a Mai Tai made with it!

Wow am I jealous! Good luck with the auction, widh I could be there.

Cheeky:

I am befuddled. If Trader Vic Bergeron created the first Mai Tai in 1944 utilizing the Wray & Nephew 17 year old expression, we know that the distillery under Lindo leadership laid down stock he utilized in 1926-27. Vic claimed that by 1946, that Mai Tai's had become so popular that he utilized all the remaining 17 year old stock that Wray & Nephew had in bond. Vic then adjusted his original Mai Tai to the 15-year old J. Wray Nephew Rum, but exhausted a second supply by the mid Fifties. Finally, the Trader had his own 8 and 15 y.o Jamaican rum under the Trader Vic's label, but because it lacked the nutty rancio of the original J.Wray rum, he vatted an ounce of Martinique Rum into his Mai Tai recipe. Let us note, that Victor Bergeron was a very critical and forceful VIP client in his day. If Wray and Nephew had stock to sell and satisfy him they would not hold stock from him. No rum company would have.

That means for Appleton to have an actual 17 year old Wray & Nephew Rum available for you that they laid down a batch in sometime in 1987-88. Not in 1926-27, which was the birth of Vic's batch. That would make your rum a 79 y.o J.Wray rum, and if you put that in a Mai Tai instead of a snifter, it would be a tragic waste of aged rum, my friend. It certainly would taste nothing like the original Trader Vic mai tai of 1944.
I was led to believe from many sources that Wray & Nephew had ceased to produce a standardized 17 y.o. rum decades before. By the late 80's, the Bacardi Silver Rum phenomenon had led the standardization of Appleton brands, as opposed to the older Wray & Nephew branding.
Like these brands:
APPLETON SPECIAL JAMAICA RUM
APPLETON ESTATE V/X JAMAICA RUM
APPLETON ESTATE 12 Y.O. JAMAICA RUM
APPLETON ESTATE 21 Y.O. JAMAICA RUM
APPLETON WHITE JAMAICA RUM
I believe the only continuous Wray & Nephew brand to be Wray & Nephew White Over-proof Jamaican Rum, and is likely to have been so for a few decades.
If this is an actual 17 y.o. rum, would you ask your Ms. Spence or Appleton Representative to inquire with HQ, how and why this mystery cask was produced with no standard commercial purpose? Highly unlikely there would be a one-off produced for nostalgia sake. Managing aging stocks and depletions is job one for distillery managers in the international liquor trade. I am not Doubting Thomas, but in the spirits world their are lots of "smoke and mirrors" employed in marketing and that includes half-truths and flat out lies.
Regardless, the Lascelles, deMercado Group is a fine rum distiller, and they are carrying forward the oldest name in commercial rum production. It will always be the Holy Grail to taste the original Mai Tai as Vic concocted it. It is part of the mythos that appeals to us young un's. Our grandparents never knew how lucky they had it in there day. Like Jab, I value Coruba as a perfect foil to my rush hour aggrevation and keep it stocked on the bar. I would just like more explaination to the provinance of this unique cask.

Before the Revolution, the per capita consumption of RUM in the Colonies was 3.7 gallons PER person. We have become a Neo-temperant nation of wimps and quitters! We must rise, Tiki Nation, and raise our ceramic mugs in resistance to teatotaling!

[ Edited by: Rum Numb Davey 2005-09-02 10:39 ]

Rum Numb, by what I have been told but it sounds like a reasonable story. This cask was never produced specially, they also thought there was none left until this barrel was found was found, that is why it is so special.
Joy Spence, has only let this bottle and a couple more that I know of out of her sight.
Wray & Nephew/ Appleton seemed pretty in awe of it when we had a taste this afternoon.
With jamaican Rum, the Age is the youngest rum added to the blend or something like that, hence the Age does not tell you necessarily how old it is. This they say is from the original batch.
I will try to find out more

Much appreciated, Cheeky my man, Trust me...I want it to be so.
Put on your best Connery 007 routine and press for specifics. When I worked in Scotland brokering malt whisky and demerara rum, we could prove provenance and age on all stock. Legally obligated as well.
An old firm like Wray and Nephew is very unlikely to open a broom closet and trip over an ancient cask..

Warehouseman George: "Hey Stanly..look what I found under this White Stephenson Sugar bag!"
Warehouseman Stan: "Golly, George..it appears to be a very old cask of extremely desirable rum..wait a minute..something is written on here..says bound for Oakland."
Warehouseman George: "Do you think we can sneak it out to Spanish Town, and party with the Rastafarian girlies?"
Warehouseman Stan: " Naw, Mon, me thinks we should turn it over to Joy Spence, as she going to need a Luau gift for Cheeky's London bash."
Warehouseman George:" You're right that would just be too fairy tale perfect, and make all the bloody Yank Babylonians hate their lives that they are not like Madonna living the jet set lifestyle of London to Hollywood to Miami to London again."
Warehouseman Stan:" Ester, Mon...she is called Ester!"
Warehouseman George: "wha...?"
Warehouseman Stan:" Madonna is called Ester, P Diddy is just Diddy, Prince is some freaky squiggly line, and this rum cask ..the only cask left of dreams of every tiki cocktail purists in the world..we will call it Ambrosia of Imagination and Creative Numbers."
Warehouseman George: "Good name, Mon..hey let's roll it to the truck and get a jerked pork plate and a Red Stripe. All this rum talk made me thirsty."
Warehouseman Stan:" Hooray Beer!"

Just really hard to swallow that this rum was the RUM that Vic utilized oh so many years ago! Please remember....taxes..excise..lost revenue..documentation....people's jobs on the line...theft control..money. All factors in this cask, who hid himself away to avoid being consumed. The smoke as much weed in "Blue Grass" state Kentucky as the do in Jamaica, and those hilltoppers don't lose cask. They manage the distillery like Ft. Knox manages gold. Every valuable nugget accounted for.

Please follow up on the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Harry Potter mystery, "The Lost Cask of Azkaban."

Before the Revolution, the per capita consumption of RUM in the Colonies was 3.7 gallons PER person. We have become a Neo-temperant nation of wimps and quitters! We must rise, Tiki Nation, and raise our ceramic mugs in resistance to teatotaling!

[ Edited by: Rum Numb Davey 2005-09-02 11:33 ]

[ Edited by: Rum Numb Davey 2005-09-02 11:34 ]