Archie Rose Virgin Cane Spirit

Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #2 Nose: Very herbaceous and composed almost exclusively of grassy chlorophyll aromas. Floral notes, sucrose and ethanol, slightly earthy and oily. Very reminiscent of rye white dog. Palate: A prickly herbal and ginger arrival. Sugar cane, gherkin juice. It’s so similar to rye or wheat moonshine it's hard to believe there is no cereal in this spirit. Finish: Medium. Drying, slightly bitter. The gherkin juice note tails off into a sweet/sour, grassy aftetaste. A few years ago Archie Rose produced a limited run of 2,200 bottles of this unaged white cane spirit. There is no legal classification for unaged rum in Australia, so this can’t be called “white rhum agricole”, but that’s basically what it is. The sugar cane was grown on the New South Wales mid-north coast, cut and pressed within a few hours of harvesting, yeast added, and the fermentation process happened in the tanker during its overnight trip to Sydney! On arrival the wash was pot-still distilled three times and immediately bottled. This is my third tasting of this spirit over the last two years (twice at the distillery itself and now at a formal tasting). Every experience has left me with the same feeling – that it is a commendable but ultimately failed experiment. I wish I could be more positive about it, but it just does not convince me. It smells and tastes like a cross between white dog, vodka and rhum agricole, and it is just not enjoyable enough to be a sipping drink. Water made no change to the profile. I did try it with fruit juice and if you add enough strong supporting flavours it makes an acceptable alcoholic base for a tiki drink, but that’s damning with pretty faint praise. In comparison to similarly priced rhums agricole and white rums it is simply an inferior choice. If it was a quarter the price it would be a viable substitute for bottom-shelf white rum or vodka, but at the expensive asking price it just can't be recommended. "Inferior" : 65/100 (1.5 stars)