Mezan Jamaica XO Rum 40%

Description

Mezan Jamaica XO Rum, along with the Mezan Chiriqui from Panama, is a permanent fixture in the Mezan range. The remaining Mezan Rum range consists of an ever-changing selection of vintage rums from various Caribbean countries and distilleries.

The concept of Mezan Rums is to bring to the consumer the story of the diversity of rum amongst the Caribbean Islands: styles and methods of production, and therefore the rums vary widely. Mezan is marketed as “The Unaltered Rum” and has no flavourings, sweeteners or colourings added. It is completely natural.

Mezan Jamaica XO Rum is a blend of casks from the Hampden and Monymusk stills amongst others. Hampden is the high ester distillery located in the North West of the island. Originally owned by a Scotsman – Mr Archibald Sterling circa 1750 – hence its name. Hampden specialises in heavy pot still, very high ester rums and use no commercial yeasts in pursuit of this goal. The 100% natural cultures produce a very pungent, idiosyncratic rum. Monymusk, like Hampden, has Scottish roots and is one of the oldest plantations in Jamaica. Traditionally the Monymusk (also known as Clarendon) distillery has supplied bulk rum for blending, but the quality of high-ester rum produced here has always been of the highest quality.

This XO Rum is a blend of column and pot still molasses rums which are matured in ex-Bourbon casks. Each batch of Mezan Jamaica XO Rum is re-casked for a further period of maturation, before being bottled, to encourage the flavours to integrate and improve the rum’s structure and subtlety.

Bottled at 40% ABV.

What is XO Rum?

XO is a term that derives from Cognac classification and means “Extra Old”. An XO Cognac has to be a minimum of 10 years old. However, there is no such classification for rum where XO is often used to indicate older rums at the discretion of the rum producers themselves. There are two notable exceptions,  XO rums from Martinique and Guadeloupe must be aged for a minimum of 6 years.