Saint James Heritage Rum & Reserve Rum

I spotted two new rums from Saint James at my local Total Wine & More. The Heritage is aged 12 months and the Reserve is aged 24 months.

I was thinking of picking up a bottle of the Saint James Reserve to mix with Appleton Estate V/X in a Mai Tai. I can't find any info on these rums online. I was wondering if anyone knows if they are agricole style rums?

I've read that Saint James Royal Ambre works well in a Mai Tai mixed with Appleton Estate V/X, but it's pretty much impossible to find in California. Currently using Clement VSOP & Appleton Estate 12 for Mai Tai's but, l'm looking for a lower cost alternative.

I'm glad you posted this-- i had forgotten that i saw these over the weekend at my total wine in florida as well--- they said they were blended from "prestigious caribbean rums" or somesuch. there was no identification of source rums on the label.

what does that even mean??

Interesting. Appear to be exclusive Total Wine imports. Highly unlikely, I think, that they're agricole.

Supposedly a blend of rums from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados.... Which kind of sounds like they were buying overstock wherever they could.

It's probably worth the price, given how cheap it is. But why bother? :)

I saw this rum as well last Wednesday at a Total Wine. My eyes bugged out when I saw the bottle, but I didn't see Rhum Ag mentioned prominently on the label and passed on it. It does appear to be in the St. James line of rums though, both are detailed on the St. James website.

if theyre going to send us a "caribbean" blend, then why not send us the rhum agricole?

seems like dumb business move.

aint that right, Mr. Lemonhart?

What a bummer... It would be amazing if the agricole was back on the US market. I am sure this is good and cheap, but I would rather spend more on a straight Martinique rum.

I echo those sentiments Luna and was wondering the same thing Porpoise. Looks like they have expanded their line and are trying to grab some the US market on the cocktail mixing side. I guess the key here is...how does it taste and will it last in today's Rum market? Who knows, maybe rescuer Jon Taffer will use it as a "premium" rum on his show.

I jumped on a bottle of this the moment I saw it without really reading the label or doing any research. I thought I'd somehow stumbled upon the holy grail of ag at a low price. After popping the cap though and looking at the St. James website I realized what I'd actually bought. It's not a bad rum by any means, but honestly it reminds me more of a jamaican rum than anything else despite all the other islands in the blend; the fruity hogo is strong on this one. In the future I'd save three dollars and just get a bottle of appleton v/x instead.

[ Edited by: PalmtreePat 2015-09-30 13:19 ]

I'm not going to dismiss it out of hand just because it's not an agricole from Saint James. Over the past year (since Denizen Merchant's Reserve came on the scene and more research was produced about the 1944 Trader Vic's Mai Tai and approximating the original J Wray 17 with a blend of Jamaican and Martinique rum) I've been interested in exploring more of the "industrial" rum side of Martinique and this could be another interesting data point.

Yes I lament that Saint James has elected to not continue to sell their agricole in the US* (for now anyway) - they were the first argricole rhum I really bonded with. But who knows, on its own merit this couple be an interesting rum. Don't judge it for what it's not, but try it for what it is. And then if it kinda sucks it'll suck on its own merit. :)

I'm going to be looking for some right after vacation.

kevin

• One factor in play, especially if you see just how many rums are available internationally (agricole, demerara, and may others) - some of the smaller non-US producers can have a hard time justifying the extra expense of producing a 750ml bottle for the US market if they have a big market in Europe, where the standard is 700ml. The big brands can handle that expense, but boutique or smaller producers can't always do both. Funny enough, both the US and EU can agree on 1L, so seriously, can we just move to that? It's not uncommon to see agricoles come in to the US at 1L and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason.

I am so bummed to hear these are not rhum agricole.

I really miss my Royal Ambre!

On 2015-09-29 11:48, A Frame wrote:
Who knows, maybe rescuer Jon Taffer will use it as a "premium" rum on his show.

Bar Rescue uses mostly (maybe exclusively) products from the Diageo portfolio. St. James is not in that portfolio, so unlikely.

On 2015-10-01 13:08, JenTiki wrote:
Bar Rescue uses mostly (maybe exclusively) products from the Diageo portfolio. St. James is not in that portfolio, so unlikely.

I wish Diageo would bring back their Orinoco white rum, a truly tasty and sippable silver rum.

Sorry for the derail, I couldn't resist.

I have a five or six bottle cache of the old St. James. It is really really good in Mai Tais.