Nose: Dark sugars, apricot, stewed peach, tropical fruit juice, almond. Over time a sweet demerara sugar aroma comes forward. Palate: The arrival is nutty and sweet, but not at all heavy, and there is a sprightly green apple-skin agricole note that grows as the palate develops. This gives a dry quality to the rum and although it is balanced by tropical fruit and dark honey the grassy agricole personality stays central. The texture becomes creamier as it progresses. Finish: Medium/Short. Grass, citrus, sultanas and brioche. Karu is a young distillery located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. They began by producing some excellent gin and a few years later brought their aged rum to market. Karu Outcask is produced from molasses with a fermentation time of 14 days. It is then distilled in a 600 litre pot still and aged in ex-whisky barrels for 2-4 years. Production uses a solera-inspired system in which selected aged barrels are first blended into marrying tuns, then when a batch is created half of the married rum is transferred to a flocking vat and reduced with rainwater. The marrying tuns are then topped-up. This system ensures complexity and consistency. The rum is non-chill filtered and may louche when diluted, which I always take as a good sign. This is a good rum and a great example of the style of modern rum that is coming out of Australia. Although almost all of our rum is produced from molasses there is a ubiquitous agricole personality to our modern rum (the older brands like Bundaberg and Beenleigh do not have this). Initially I was going to give this 4 stars but when I looked at my tasting journal that would have put it on the same shelf as Doorly’s 12 year old and I didn’t think it was quite that good, so I’m giving it 3.75 which equates it with Worthy Park Single Estate and Penny Blue, which sounds right to me. PS- My bottle was from batch number 2 and since then the label has changed. Also, I made an error in the listing as this rum is 46% abv, not 45%. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)