Overview
Brand: Mhoba
Origin: Mhoba, Malelane, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Still: Pot
Age: 2 years
Finish: ex-Wine French Oak
ABV: 65%
Ah Mhoba, we finally meet again. This South African producer has created some of my favorite cane juice-based rums throughout the past few years. A majority of their rums that I've reviewed have come from independent bottlers, with the remaining two original bottlings featuring cask or stave aging that drastically affected the core rum's profile.
This rum is an original bottling, and is part of Mhoba's Select Reserve collection; this is a "selection of [Mhoba's] most exceptional pot distillations of fermented pure sugarcane juice".
Mhoba Select Reserve French Cask is a sugarcane juice-based rum that was produced using Mhoba's pot still in Malalane, Mpumalanga, in 2019; this batch is identified as #2019FC3. The rum was placed in a French oak cask that previously held South African red wine, where it aged for 2 years before being bottled at 65% ABV.
This sample was provided to me by /u/LIFOanAccountant, a fellow rum reviewer on /r/rum and at MaltRunners.com.
Appearance
Golden brown; low viscosity
Nose
Golden raisins, butterscotch, flamed orange peel, grilled & caramelized pineapple, cookie dough
Palate
Malted cereal grains, butterscotch, sunflower oil, caramelized marshmallow, vanilla, cinnamon, hint of cardamom
Finish
Long, warming, toasted; vanilla, flamed orange peel, caramelized brown sugar, loose tobacco, hint of cocoa powder
Rating: 7/10
Summary
Surprisingly enough, this expression of Mhoba is relatively calmer than the others I have tried. It is easy to drink at this proof, but there's no shortage of complexity!
Everything from the nose through the palate and finish is familiar to me, but it seems the French oak cask settled some of the wild flair of the base rum– or vice-versa. I often can tell when a spirit has been aged in this wood, since it typically creates a more spicy result than American oak; not so here. All the hallmarks of Mhoba appear: nutty butterscotch, flamed orange peel, golden raisins, and caramelized pineapple.
This is an excellent rum that showcases what I love about Mhoba, in a different type of cask aging than what I'm used to. I've typically favored Mhoba expressions aged in South African whisky casks, but this is a very compelling bottling to challenge that.