Mhoba Umganu Brandy Cask - New Vibrations

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 64.9% | Chill filtration: No | Colouring: No

Special Features:

A former marula brandy cask shapes this rum from the New Vibrations Collection. Distilled in 2019, Umganu spent its entire three-year maturation in an old French oak cask in South Africa’s warm climate. The cask previously held a local spirit distilled from marula fruit; Umganu is the local name for this fruit.

La Maison du Whisky selected cask AMA 1, which yielded 419 numbered bottles. The rum was bottled at 64.9% and comes in an engraved wooden box. It contains no colouring and is not chill-filtered.

Alongside its herbal and citrus freshness, Umganu reveals an unusually earthy side reminiscent of mezcal. Agave and lemon linger in the empty glass, together with earthy, almost peaty impressions.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: The nose is lavish and intense: vanilla, lime and jasmine meet warm cane sugar, anise and star anise. With air, lilac, lily of the valley, green walnuts and freshly cut grass emerge.
• Palate: The palate opens with a lively, slender character, showing spearmint, verbena and anise. Lemony freshness accompanies a medicinal impression reminiscent of mustard poultices. Ginger, cloves, liquorice and acacia honey emerge on the mid-palate.
• Finish: The long finish begins with pronounced, slate-like minerality. Gradually, lime, lemon balm and fresh walnuts bring freshness to the milky, agave-like aftertaste. Resinous impressions mingle with sugarcane fibres and gentian root.

Distillery/Bottler:

The MHOBA Sugar Estate lies near Malalane in South Africa, where the Greaves family has grown sugarcane since the 1980s. Robert Greaves studied mechanical engineering and returned to the family estate during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. A trip to Mauritius inspired the idea of a rum distillery; in 2013, he produced his first white rum using stills he had built himself.

Mhoba uses juice from its own sugarcane rather than molasses and distils in pot stills. Greaves designed and built the equipment needed for production himself. For Umganu, sugarcane cultivation, production, maturation and bottling all take place on the estate. The distillery uses fermentation periods of up to three weeks, producing ester-rich rums.

Facts: