Overview
Brand: Privateer, Letter of Marque series
Origin: Privateer Distilling, Ipswich, MA, USA (picked by Florida Rum Society)
Still: Hybrid Pot & Column
Age: 5 years
Finish: New American Oak & ex-Armagnac
ABV: 58%
Incredibly, this is only our second review of Privateer's Letter of Marque series of releases. The only other Letter of Marque we've looked at was our very first review! As a refresher, the bottlings in this series are typically single cask rums selected by a club and/or retailer.
Privateer Letter of Marque "Lafayette's Last Voyage" was selected by the Florida Rum Society (FRS), named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French war hero of the American Revolution that was later granted land in the Sunshine State. It's also a nod to the type of cask used to finish the rum in.
The molasses-based rum was produced using Privateer's hybrid still in 2017, and initially placed in a new American oak cask. It spent 3.5 years in that cask, before being tasted by the FRS folks, who wanted to try aging the rum in a used Armagnac cask. What was planned to be six months of "finishing" turned into another one and a half years of aging in that secondary cask, resulting in a total of 5 years of cask aging. The final yield of the cask was 179 bottles at 56.6% ABV.
Appearance
Amber, low viscosity
Nose
Burnt oak, marzipan, vanilla, toffee, freeze-dried raspberries
Palate
Oak, vanilla, toffee, baked raspberry tart, strawberry jam
Finish
Medium length, warm, dry; oak, vanilla, cinnamon, underripe strawberries, star anise
Rating: 6/10
Summary
This is a staunch single cask rum that does not compromise in any department. Lafayette's Last Voyage really takes advantage of the time it spent in the cask, while still allowing the cask to show up in bits and pieces.
Much of the experience is dominated by oaky notes: vanilla, toffee, some cinnamon, and a bitterness similar to star anise. Aromatically, this is quite nice when presented in a glencairn glass, with torched oak linking with marzipan, vanilla, nutty toffee, and dried raspberries– a nod to the armagnac cask perhaps?
Tasting the rum, I get more of the same, but a bit harsh and oak-forward, with raspberry tart and strawberry jam appearing in the back palate. The finish is warm and dry, with only a hint of fruit that is sometimes overtaken by the somewhat rough integration of wood.
For me, this is teetering on the edge of acceptable oak intensity. (I will note that I've had the bottle open for a few years at this point, which undoubtedly has an effect on the contents) But if you're not afraid of uncompromising rum aged in a commanding type of cask, this is one expression that you would enjoy.