Black Tot Master Blender's Reserve 2023

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 54.5% | Chill filtration: No | Colouring: No

Special Features:

Black Tot Master Blender's Reserve 2023 centres on the weighty, full-bodied style of historic Navy rums. Oliver Chilton combines rums from Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and, for the first time, Grenada with a reserve carried forward through several editions. The Grenadian rum was distilled in 1993 and adds depth and pronounced orange oil notes to the blend. Chocolate, espresso, cocoa and wood smoke meet stone fruit, including peach, in its overall character.

The recipe comprises 31.5% Guyanese, 18.3% Barbadian, 9% Jamaican, 19% Trinidadian and 2.7% Grenadian rum, alongside 19.5% Perpetual Blend. This reserve component consists of 19% Master Blender's Reserve 2022 and 0.5% historic Royal Navy rum. The new edition thus carries forward not only selected individual distillates but also a part of its predecessors.

The blend brings together spirits from pot stills, wooden pot stills and column stills, as well as tropical and continental maturation. Guyana makes a substantial contribution with chocolate and liquorice, while the other countries contribute stone fruit, vanilla and tropical fruit, among other notes. These different distillation and maturation methods underpin the dense, layered style of this edition.

The rum is bottled in Scotland at 54.5%. It is non-chill-filtered and contains neither added sugar nor added flavourings. The bottle contains 0.7 litres and comes in gift packaging.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: On the nose, cooked blood orange and clove combine with cinnamon and hints of Tawny and Ruby Port.
• Palate: The rum is full-bodied and dense on the palate. Liquorice, toffee and cherry are accompanied by orange marmalade.
• Finish: Rum-soaked raisins, toffee and chocolate linger on the finish, with cinnamon and nutmeg adding spice to the sweet notes.

Distillery/Bottler:

Behind Black Tot is Elixir Distillers, the company built by brothers Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh to develop, blend and bottle spirits. Black Tot Last Consignment was released in 2011 using historic Royal Navy stocks. Two years of development and 26 recipe trials followed to create a distinctive modern rum, before Black Tot Finest Caribbean launched in 2019. The brand name recalls 31 July 1970: Black Tot Day marked the end of the Royal Navy's daily rum ration.

Master Blender Oliver Chilton oversees cask selection and develops the blends. He begins with representative samples of different rum styles; once the selected stocks have been brought together, the larger blend is tasted again and adjusted to account for differences between individual casks. The annual reserve gives him more freedom than a standard bottling intended to remain consistent. Perpetual blending draws on a historic Navy practice: part of an existing blend is retained as a foundation and supplemented with further rums.

Facts: