Lord Byron Pure Single Rum (Red Wine Cask Finish)

This Pure Single Rum from the Byron Bay distillery is a molasses-based pot still rum given a red wine cask finish and bottled unsweetened at a cask strength of 55.5%. It carries no age statement and shows a clearly youthful character, but one full of personality, with drinkers reaching for comparisons to a caramel-laced Hampden.

The nose is fruity and tropical with caramel and vanilla, while the palate turns buttery with a distinctive popcorn note, sweetness and burnt sugar before a finish of tropical fruit, caramel and barrel. The red wine cask adds a fruity overlay, and tasters find it more approachable than the distillery's straight bourbon-aged release, even if a little youthful roughness remains. As an unsweetened, full-proof and characterful pot still rum it makes a lively neat sipper for the adventurous, rewarding a splash of water to soften its younger edges.