Adelaide Rum Distillery’s Mad Monkey released its first barrel-aged rum. The spirit is the culmination of a three-year quest and the beginning of what its creators, Scott McCarthy and Alec McDowall, hope will be an “artisan rum revolution.”
To date, they have created three unique artisan spirits: Saccharum, Flora, and Ubhal Bakte. Now, the limited-edition Barrel Aged Rum has been lying on oak in a 120-liter Barossa Valley red wine cask at their warehouse and distillery for over two years. The spirit was fermented, distilled, and aged on-site, using native ingredients and traditional methods. Their processes begin with molasses from sugarcane farmed in the Condong, Broadwater, and Harwood Sugar Mills in the northern rivers of New South Wales.
While this expression developed characteristics purely from the barrel during aging, the distillers’ other cane spirits are infused with a variety of flavors, such as lemon, grapefruit, pear, nectarines, and dai dai. In fact, they have started making a line of spirits they plan to blend with fruit from their own orchard.
Mad Monkey places sustainability at the center of all they do, and they have developed environmentally beneficial water, waste, and energy-saving initiatives. This includes the installation of solar panels and a local beehive, a closed water circuit for the still system to reduce water waste, eco-friendly packaging, and bulk delivery to venues to reduce the use of single-use glass.
On-site beehives also play a key role in rum making, as the distillers aim to start harvesting wild yeast from the bees. They will end up cultivating it and using it for fermentation. Thus, their local terroir will influence the flavors created by that yeast.
Australia requires a spirit to be barrel-aged for two years before it can be named “rum.” Accordingly, Mad Monkey’s previous spirits were categorized as only “cane spirits.” With the launch of this aged spirit, South Australia’s rum distillery can now proclaim that they are legally selling rum.
Featured image source: Glamadelaide.com (June 18, 2021).
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