Rivers Royal Granadian White 69

Wanted to try this for a while, and was lucky to be given a sample. Really smooth considering the strength. Easy drinking neat. Mineral tones and mild pot still funky tones.
I imagine it would be wasted in a cocktail. Not enough of a flavour punch. It would make a satisfying now and again sipper, and at half the price, I'd be in there.

Nose: Absolutely pungent but without an overpowering hit of ethanol. It primarily comprises of fresh sugar cane but is nuanced by artificial sweet corn powder, flower tisane, damp leaves and soil, and canned pineapple tidbits. The sweetness threads into the territory of cheese pimiento, kielbasa sausages, and the dank aromas you get from leaving wet clothes in a closed space for too long. Mouthwatering hints of garlic powder and thyme. Digging a little more after some time reveals more fruit and crisp aromas: sliced pears sautéing in light olive oil, dry white wine, and boxed apple juice.

Palate: I like how it took me a couple of sips to acclimatize before I could zero on what's going on. It has a beefy and oily mouthfeel, with the arrival consisting of juniper, pickled pineapples, and lemon-flavored hard candy. It doubles down on the olives. Then comes sugar cane juice, leftover pesto sauce, and the fresh and briny yet dirty taste of sea urchin sashimi. If Willy Wonka's 3-Course Dinner Gum were real, I'd imagine it to have this kind of development. Throughout the development, the texture remains oily. Exhaling leads to marker pens and almost a chewing gum note.

Finish: Unsurprisingly long. Even the oiliness remains in the throat. Pei pa koa candy (a candy used as Chinese medicine), singed wood, brown sugar, and orange peels.

Huge meaty and umami flavors wrapping the core cane juice note. I detect aged fish sauce and semi-dried grass. On the palate, almost like a tomato quality to the umami, and more cane juice and post-harvest air. Delicious and unique.

Delivers an impressive amount of flavor and I love the proof point. This has a bit of a smoke taste for me in the finish that I’m not crazy about, but it’s definitely one of the bucket list cane juice pot still rums out there.

Aroma is nice, fruit and grass. Taste funky jamaica with grass and fruit, mixed with woody and smoky tones. Bit burning but not too much. Aftertaste is long again with some lightly smoked tones on palate. Friends of smoked tones can add 1 point 😉

Nosing
Jamaican overproof with ripe bananas and oranges . Grass and watered down wray and nephew ...

Tasting
Clean olives, grass notes and butterscotch. It seems to be in the middle of an overproof Jamaican and a Caribbean light rum ...

It has an amazing history with regards to trying to export the full proof product and this might be the difference the overproof lacking depth ...

White with mix Knicks you in your back side type of you have way to many sipping if you want a early night

Je suis étonné que Velier ne se soit pas encore attaqué à cette distillerie qui fait pour moi un des plus fabuleux pure single rum qui soit. Très terreux et animal au nez. On sent la canne fraiche et le cuir fraichement tanné rouler sur la langue et y rester indéfiniment. Le clairin passerait presque pour un lait fraise à coté!!! Très difficile à se procurer .

Well, let's just say, don't try to mix it. Whatever you put with it will be overpowered by the Rivers. The distillery is a great tour, rum is pretty cheap ($10usd) for a handle, and that's basically where it ends. I have a feeling this will sit in my cabinet for quite a while.