American bottler Holmes Cay has released a rum named Infinity. With that name I instantly think about an infinity bottle. I bet a lot of people have one of these at home. A bottle where you pour all the last little bits of each rum in your collection into. The result can be marvelous, or crappy, depending on what you put in there. Whatever the outcome is, at least you can pretend to be a master blender, which is rather cool.
Some people follow the same principle, but use a barrel as the vessel. Steve Leukanech, a well known rum enthusiast from Florida, does this for example. It adds another dimension, as the liquid isn’t just blended, it’s also ageing. Main Rum Company in Liverpool does this too. They are the firm behind a lot of the liquid that independent bottlers use and are a subsidiary of E&A Scheer in Amsterdam. A very old company with warehouses full of old rums from all over the world. It’s rum paradise. Can you imagine what kind of rarities could end up in an infinity cask there?! Thanks to Eric Kaye, dreaming about it isn't our only option anymore, as we can now taste it as well! He stuck his neck out, took a risk and bought the, no doubt, very expensive cask. Not the first time he’s done this either, just think of the 20 year old Holmes Cay Foursquare Pot Still Rum for example. He bottled Infinity in the US under the Holmes Cay brand, beautified the bottle somewhat and stuck it in one of the nicest boxes I’ve ever seen. You can guess, this one isn’t cheap. Which is what usually happens with rare and unique items.
Holmes Cay Infinity comes with a 49 page booklet with detailed info on the blend, the various distilleries, even how much of each component is in the bottle. It also states "the blend was created by using old pre-shipment or retain samples, which were kept for quality management purposes". Once they determined the samples were no longer required to be stored, they put them in the infinity cask. The cask itself is an ex rum cask. The full blend was aged in it from 2003 for nearly 20 years.
The makeup of the blend is as follows:
By country
Guyana – 74%
Jamaica – 15%
Guadeloupe – 5%
Barbados – 1%
Trinidad – 1%
Venezuela – 1%
Brazil – 1%
By still type
Pot still – 48%
Column still – 39%
Blend of pot and column still – 13%
By still, marque and year (where available)
Guyana (Uitvlugt, Enmore, Diamond)
Double wooden pot still: PM 1976, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1998. AWM 1988
Single wooden pot still: KFM, VSG 1985
French Savalle still: SWR, ICBU
Stainless steel column still: ELWR, GS20, UDS, SVC
Wooden Coffey still: EHP
Jamaica
Long Pond: IRW
Hampden: LROK
Clarendon: MMW, EMB (both pot still). MBS (column still)
Trinidad
Caroni
Providence
Barbados
West Indies Rum Distillery, pot still
Venezuela
Industrias Pampero, column still
Guadeloupe (all cane juice, column still)
Montebello 1998
Pere Labat (Poisson) 1998
Gardel 1976, 1977, 1982, 1983, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993
Brazil
Epris Distillery: Cachaca (cane juice, column still)
Question is, does it taste any good? Bottles in this price range aren’t always opened by their buyers. They are collected and shown off at birthday parties and on social media. In that case the taste doesn’t really matter, it might as well contain Captain Morgan Spiced. It’s all about the story, the uniqueness and the price. A good story sells, which is especially true in the rum world. Look at the very expensive Black Tot Last Consignment. The story that goes with it is definitely selling the rum, as the tale is better than the liquid. Let’s see how it is with Holmes Cay Infinity.
The rum was bottled at cask strength of 58% in one hundred 700ml bottles and 54 200ml bottles for people who want to spend a little less. Thirty of those smaller sized bottles were sold through the Holmes Cay website and sold out in 30 minutes. The other 24 went to retail. I was very lucky that a local friend was willing to gift me a sample of this rare Infinity blend.
Nosing
I’m getting raspberry, newspaper, nice oak, green apple, pineapple, tobacco, vanilla, milk chocolate, coconut, light cardboard and a tiny drop of glue. There are some grassy notes in the background. A pleasant, easy going nose that continuously takes you in different directions.
Tasting
Wow, this is quite the journey. Black pepper, dark chocolate, strong oak, vanilla, raisins, caramel, anise, typical sweet bourbon cask notes, some Scotch notes, Port Mourant notes, it has a rough edge that reminds me of oily TDL and diesel like Caroni. Unfortunately it’s quite bitter, but there is an interesting sweet and fruity undercurrent that’s attempting to push the bitterness away. It doesn’t fully succeed in its mission, but it’s a tasty attempt.
The finish is lengthy, with the rum lingering for a long time.
Conclusion
The best thing about this rum is that it takes you on a journey. It's like a window through which you can see some of rum's past. When you have rums from this many different distilleries, it won’t necessarily be a happy marriage, despite the pedigree of all the producers. It’s like a tribute concert where 12 of the world’s best guitarists perform on stage at the same time and turn it into a messy soup. That’s not the case with Holmes Cay Infinity. Each time you come back to it, nose or palate, it gifts you something new. This makes it a real joy to spend a good amount of time with. Never turns boring! The only problem is that I didn’t want to finish it.
Is it the best rum in the world? No. Is it very balanced? No. Is it incredibly fascinating? 1000% Yes! I’m very happy I was able to taste this. We clearly need more people like Holmes Cay’s Eric and Maura in the rum universe!
Score
Holmes Cay Infinity – 81
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