While I’m arriving a bit late to the party regarding reviewing Ninefold, it’s never a bad thing to put the spotlight back on the small producers every once in a while. In my defense I did have a look at their first aged expression their released earlier this year with a limited run of… 10 bottles – all about it here.
Ninefold is a Scottish rum (not the first spirit that would pop in your mind when you think of Scotland, right?) which makes it interesting in my books, as I am really excited about “locally” produced rums – see my Circumstantial Cane review for another example. The distillery is owned and ran by Kit Carruthers, who for the record doesn’t have any previous experience distilling, but his white distillate got a lot of praise in the community, so I just wanted to check myself.
Ninefold is molasses based, fermented for about 4 days and then double distilled in their 500 liter copper pot still and 4 plate rectifying column. Completely unaged, the rum is bottled at 40% ABV without any additions – doesn’t get more pure than that.
On the nose the main flavours I can think of is margarine and pink grapefruit. Pine tree, basil, orgeat, vanilla and coconut – it’s quite the combo. Feels herbal, citrusy and creamy all in the same time. Trying to place a note and I think it’s iron – yea it smells like iron, and I don’t hate it.
On the palate feels very buttery. It has a dairy note to it, kinda funny as the label states “vegan friendly”. Coconut cream, grapefruit, toffee and sponge cake. Quite the body for an unaged white rum. Has a vegetal funk to it, similar to a blanco tequila, but more diluted. The finish is short to medium with notes of grapefruit peel and hints of caramel.
Very well balanced and fairly unique. Given that this is a Scottish product and made by someone who has no previous experience distilling, I’d say it’s pretty damn impressive. Shared some if it with some colleagues and I they described it with terms like “cachaca” and “tequila” and I can’t argue that, the grassy profile is there, but not predominant. I did try it in a “Paloma” and it worked very well.
You can buy a bottle from their website for £35 and I recommend it.
Ninefold Pure Single Rum score:
Flavour/taste: 51/70
Value for money: 14/15
Transparency/purity: 15/15
Overall: 80/100
Cheers!
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