Overview
Brand: Valinch & Mallet, The Spirit of Art series
Origin: Ten Cane, Saint Madeleine, Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago
Still: Pot
Age: 13 years
Finish: ex-Cognac & ex-Bourbon
ABV: 56.3%
After nearly 150 reviews, we return to a rum that was previously looked at in review #015– Ten Cane. To recap, Ten Cane was a distillery that produced rum for the 10 Cane brand, all owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, and based in Trinidad; after limited success and a decade in existence, the distillery and brand were shut down.
Similar to fellow shuttered Trinidad distillery Caroni, Ten Cane's remaining stocks have been the target of many independent bottlers in recent years.
Valinch & Mallet bottled this expression of Ten Cane sugarcane juice-based rum, which was initially distilled in 2008 through a pot still. After 7 years of tropical aging and 6 years of continental aging, this rum was bottled in 2021 at a strength of 56.3% ABV. The cask type(s) were not disclosed, but it is likely that since the 10 Cane style was 6 months in ex-Cognac casks, V&M's expression was dual matured in ex-Cognac and ex-Bourbon casks, similar to the aforementioned Holmes Cay release.
This sample was provided to me by Andrew Hinton, a friend of mine and admin of the Friends of Rum Tennessee (FORT) group.
Appearance
Scarlet-brown, low viscosity
Nose
Orange marmalade, sugarcane, vanilla, honeycomb, ruby grapefruit, fresh dough
Palate
Orange marmalade, rose water, honeycomb, vanilla, plums, nutmeg
Finish
Medium-long, warm, sweet; flamed orange peel, bitter oak, cinnamon, vanilla
Rating: 8/10
Summary
Valinch & Mallet's Ten Cane is great; it's got a lot of the notes I expect from continentally-aged Ten Cane, but really integrated the aromas and flavors well.
Sweet notes like orange marmalade, honeycomb, and vanilla come through on the nose, without any ethanol sting. They transition to the palate, and are joined by rose water, plums, and nutmeg, bringing a heap of spice to a profile that provides a fresh take on aged sugarcane juice-based rums. The finish has a bit of raw oak/ethanol at times, but offers flamed orange peel, cinnamon, and vanilla as an outro.
All-in-all, this polls above the Holmes Cay Ten Cane for me, and drinks really well for the proof. If the 10 Cane brand was still around and this was released as a 10 year, even at something like 47% ABV, I think this would rival many other aged sugarcane juice rums in its complexity and balance.