Savanna Distillery | High Esters Rum Réunion

Recently we took a closer look at the new Lontan (Grand Arôme) 12 year old from Savanna. Shortly before this official release, LMDW released another Grand Arôme from Savanna for its 60th anniversary with the sweet name of HERR: a rum that could be considered similar, but which is ultimately very different from the Lontan…

Originally created to target the German market and its pronounced taste for Jamaican rums (which can rightly be considered as great aromas), it is directly inspired by what the Jamaicans achieve in terms of "High Esters" rums; a variation therefore fruitier and more aromatic than the Lontan. Considered too expensive and too different from the standards, the rum will end up partly at an independent Japanese bottler, as well as at LMDW (for a total of 2 barrels). There would remain from this very marginal production a small stock of old and white in Savanna, perhaps enough to give them ideas, who knows?

HERR | production side

Although the fermentation base is the same as the Lontan, the HERR benefits from a different and additional bacterial work that is intended to be closer to the characteristics of a Jamaican rum, with a greater aromatic richness than the Lontan, particularly in esters (richer qualitatively and quantitatively). And while the Lontan is distilled via the traditional Savalle de Savanna column, the HERR is distilled (preferably) discontinuously via a classic still (and not a repasse), a first at the distillery, allowing maximum extraction (absence of column) of the fermentation aromas as well as a longer residence time of the wine at high temperatures favoring the chemical reactions at the origin of an atypical flavor. The rum is aged in ex-Cognac barrels like most of the distillery's productions.

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Savanna 10 years HERR / 63.8°

High Ester Rum Réunion, or in other words a Jamaican rum from Réunion. First developed for the German market fond of Jamaican (especially for their Vernischtt), it will fall into the bag of LMDW with a price that will inevitably come out of it. 685 bottles of 50cl will see the light of day.

This rum had created a surprise during the last Whisky Live, in particular by its very particular character, classifying it as a UFO and distracting many visitors. We warmly invite you to read the different feedbacks on the different pages of the social networks and on the excellent site Whisky Leaks .

The dress is a bright amber color tending towards a most soothing old gold. Oily and nonchalant, time seems to have stopped on bulbous tears, padlocked on the glass.

On the nose, it is the surprise that prevails and that questions, and this rum will not leave anyone (and that is an understatement) indifferent: a pungent and tangy smell successively reminiscent of a jelly candy and freshly sliced ​​pineapple slices with a teeming and tangy exoticism, powerfully fresh and eccentric (harlequin candy, huhu stick) and which already seems to besiege our nasal walls, with a generous and dazzling power. There is in this rum a profusion of pineapple, then banana, dried strawberry, velvety tannins and spices so sweet that the alcohol content seems overrated. This nose is as atypical and extravagant as it is complex, as disturbing as it is seductive and curious. And it has in fact very little in common with the Lontan, much darker and empyreumatic, wise and controlled, even if both enjoy an exceptional richness. This HERR, while retaining its marked and irreversible exoticism, seems to reveal a smoky and embalmed (glued) atmosphere when it rests; we would probably stay there for hours with the same curiosity, you glued to the glass and stunned, he overflowing and lively.

On the palate, the attack is literally acidic and briny, smoky (or braised?), very medicinal and of a mind-blowing richness; it does not seem to want to diminish, but rather, to conquer the palate a little more, breaking down the doors one by one and leaving behind it trails of sovereign and energetic (but subtle) notes, pounding its host with delicacy and good taste, with dexterity and tenderness.

You didn't think you could be brutalized with affection? With sympathy and kindness? That you could be kissed with your whole mouth? Well, think again, this rum is monstrously docile and will take you whole, caress your senses while leaving the imprint of its sharp nails. A rum that would make the most arid soil sweat. You wanted animality in your oral relationship with rum? Exotic fruits seem to carry the tasting even a little more, expelling their opulence without any embarrassment and with a relaxed desire, sweet and acid, frolicking in a closed environment and delivering electrifying charges of saccharine, flirtatious and caustic, biting notes, in a finish that will never have lived up to its name so well.

A rum that is unlike any other, or perhaps like those hyper-concentrated Jamaicans but here much more excessive in the exoticism; because if you do not appreciate these notes of artichoke and olive present in long-fermented rums, this rum would probably be worth trying: the exoticism brings a kind of ease despite the degree, and a carnal and electrifying side. Note: 86

To help you (and me) find your way around, regarding the notes:

90 and + : exceptional and unique rum, it is the best of the best
between 85 and 89 : highly recommended rum, with that little something that makes the difference
between 80 and 84 : recommendable rum
75-79 POINTS : above average
70-74 POINTS : in the low average
less than 70 : not very good

Review courtesy of DuRhum.com.

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