Bayou Select Rum, Louisiana 40%

Description

Bayou Select Rum is an American rum distilled in the state of Louisiana. All ingredients are sourced from the state. It is one of a small collection of rums made by Bayou Rum including their superb Bayou Spiced Rum. There is also a satsuma flavoured rum, which sounds intriguing, which is not exported to the UK. Bayou Select Rum is the distillery’s main product, they describe it as a “rum for Bourbon drinkers”.

Louisiana Spirits, the producers of Bayou Rum, was founded in 2011 when work also began on their new purpose-built distillery located in Lacassine. The distillery officially opened in 2013 and the company rapidly grown to become the largest privately owned rum producer in the US.

Sugar production and rum production have always been inextricably linked, so it is no surprise that Louisiana, with its rich history of sugar plantations that made the region famous, has a long history of rum production. There are early records of Jesuits making “tafia” (the French term for rum prior to “rum) from 1751. Rum production continued in Louisiana in one form or another until prohibition in 1919 which effectively stopped Louisiana rum production its tracks.

All fermentation, distillation, maturation, and bottling takes place at the distillery. The raw product for this rum is raw unrefined cane sugar and molasses from M.A. Patout & Sons Enterprise Factory in Patoutville which is all pressed from fresh sugarcane harvested from Louisiana fields. The rum is distilled in three small copper pot stills from a unique blend of local molasses and fresh raw sugar. The rum is aged in a combination of heavily charred ex Bourbon barrels and ex Bordeaux red wine barrels (wet barrels) aged in a solera system for up to 4 years.