Lantenhammer Rumult Blanco 2017

Rumult Blanco is the unaged white from Lantenhammer, a German distillery better known for fruit brandies, this one from a 2017 distillation bottled at 43%. The fruit spirit background is the key to it, the house brings a schnapps maker's precision to a molasses base, with an unusually long fermentation feeding the aromatics.

The distillation is notably clean, and that clean style, combined with the long ferment, pushes the spirit toward the world of Obstler and even grappa rather than tropical white rum. The nose is mild and fruity with a sour edge recalling fruit brandy, and the palate follows the same path, fruity and mild with a light sweetness, closing on a sugary note. There is no confirmed dosage, and the sweetness reads as gentle rather than heavy. It is an interesting cross cultural object, a white rum filtered through a German fruit distilling sensibility, best approached with that framing rather than as a Caribbean blanc.