Mermaid Spiced Rum, Isle of Wight Distillery 40%

Description

Mermaid Spiced Rum is the latest addition to the Isle of Wight Distillery’s portfolio of Gin, Rum and Vodka. It is a maritime-influenced spiced rum made using a carefully selected blend of Caribbean rums, local fruits and spices.

The Isle of Wight Distillery was founded by a winemaker and a brewer who had long thought about making a gin. Conrad Gauntlet started growing vines and making wine at Rosemary vineyard in 1985 and, with over 30 acres of vineyards, is one of the largest wine producers on the Isle of Wight. Xavier Baker has been brewing beer since 1995 and first cut his teeth at the Ventnor Brewery and, after a couple of detours in whisky (Ireland and Scotland), he eventually arrived at Goddard’s Brewery near Ryde. The pair soon met and a plan to produce Gin was conceived. 

Since then the company has grown from strength to strength and in November 2022 the company achieved B Corporation Certification joning an global movement of like-minded organisations, using business as a force for good. In 2023 the distillery began exporting to the USA. It remains the island’s first and only distillery. 

Mermaid Spiced Rum is produced from a specially selected blend of sugar cane and molasses rums sourced from Trinidad and the Dominican Republic. The rums are distilled in column stills and are aged for between 2 and 5 years in ex-Bourbon whiskey oak cask barrels. The rums are shipped to the Isle of Wight for spicing where they are blended and infused with fragrant rock samphire (aka Sea Fennel or Mermaid’s Kiss) foraged from the shoreline, fresh white cherry and apricot, honey from the distillery’s own beehives and black salt from the island’s floodtides. This is then gently spiced with local holy grass (aka sweet grass or bison grass), cassia and vanilla. 

Bottled at 40% ABV.