New year, old me! What a better way to kick start 2026 than with a very special bottle of rum from Ninefold Distillery. I have seen Dr. Kit Carruthers at the 2025 UK RumFest and, as promised, I purchased a bottle of his newest release – I haven’t opened it yet, so I thought my first review of 2026 should change that.
There is a lot to talk about here, but if you want the full story of how important of a release this is for Ninefold Distillery, Dr. Kit Carruthers and Scottish rum in general, please read it all on the Ninefold website – I’ll be keeping it as short as I can.
Ninefold Scottish Oak used, as the name suggests, a cask made out of Scottish oak for its maturation process, and a pretty special one at that. When the distillery was starting getting build, on the Dormont Estate where Ninefold currently is, Dr. Kit Carruthers had local forester John Williamson hand fell six of the Quercus Robur trees from the banks of the nearby Annan river. This happened at the end of March 2018 and the pieces were further quartersawn into boards that were left to air dry near the distillery for 4 years before being turned into nine 200 litre barrels in 2022 – eight with a medium toast and one with a medium char.
The rum in my bottle comes from barrel number DO32 which has a medium toast and was filled with two experimental batches of rum (more details about the liquid on the website) and was left for 3 years on the site to mature – making this a 7 year old project.
The result was a batch of 240 bottles of rum of which the ones numbered from 011 to 240 are available to buy from their website – each order will come with a 70cl bottle of Ninefold Scottish Oak, an elegant green cardboard presentation box, an oak disc made from the same tree as the barrel which has been toasted to mirror the barrel interior and laser engraved, and lastly an extra 5cl miniature containing the same liquid. Apparently there are 3 different label variants between bottles numbered 011-080, 081-160 and 160-240. The bottle I own is number 019.
Ninefold Scottish Oak 3 Years Old is molasses based, pot still distilled and aged for 3 years in a Scottish oak cask made from the Dormont Estate trees. Bottled at (almost cask strength) 59.1% ABV without any additives.
On the nose the oak notes are really shinning. Pencil shavings, nutmeg, white cardboard and sandalwood. White pepper, stem ginger, toasted biscuits and bright aromatic tobacco. Ironically it reminds me of some younger Irish whiskeys. Hops (think IPAs) with some yellow apples, walnuts and a touch of honey.
On the palate the distillate punches through the woody notes. Nuts, dried dark fruits, biscuits and rich tobacco. Cacao nibs, ginger and some blackberries. I apologise for that I keep comparing it like this, but this time it resembles a blended Scotch whisky. Vanilla, black pepper and hops once again. A whiff of peat-like smoke and some nutmeg. The finish is long with toasted oak spices and some chocolate-ish notes.
The distillate is definitely there and it’s a great base, but the wood notes are the ones that are predominant, giving this expression a whisky-esque profile. But don’t worry, it still goes down like a rum given that I’m not fond of Scotch or Irish and yet, I’m very much enjoying it as I’m writing this. Any lighter distillate going into this barrel and it would’ve been completely overpowered by it.
As a side note there’s two things I’m curious about here and I’m afraid only one would be achievable. The achievable one is seeing an older version of a Scottish oak aged rum, which I’m sure Dr. Kit Carruthers will treat us to in due time. The second one would be to see how a virgin Scottish oak cask would compare to a virgin American oak cask or even a French one by aging the same distillate/marque for the same amount of time in the aforementioned casks – I’m no wood expert by far, but I’m aware that at least the porosity would be different and I’m quite intrigued by the idea. Any opinions on this, even theoretical, would be welcomed in comments or my DMs.
For the price point, a bottle of the Ninefold Scottish Oak 3 Years Old (and the extras I mentioned above) would set you back to £150 (available on the Ninefold website) which it isn’t cheap at all, but the effort made by such a small distillery into putting such a unique release on the market has to be rewarded somehow. If you have the budget and you’re into rum, whisky or both, then get it – it can definitely spark a conversation with fellow spirit enthusiasts.
Happy New Year!
Ninefold Scottish Oak 3 Years Old score:
Flavour/taste: 59/70
Value for money: 12/15
Transparency/purity: 15/15
Overall: 86/100
Cheers!
Regarding trying Ninefold Rum in different styles of oak – an Irish Whiskey company by the name of Crolly have already done this.
They finished the same matured Irish Whiskey in Sessile – Irish Oak, Alba – American Oak & Robur – European Oak.
The tasting experience does differ with all 3.
Personally the Robur Cask was my favourite – which would make this Ninefold’s Rum very interesting for me.
Unlike yourself, I’m very happy drinking both Rum and Whiskey.
I would agree however aged rum & whiskey can often take on similar tasting profiles due the barrels they have been matured in.
Having said that – I recently had a fabulous tasting experience with Vilanova French Whisky & wondered why all 4 whiskies tasted so good.
Only on having a glass of Crolly Robur did the penny drop.
It was the Robur cask maturation that had imparted the enjoyable flavour profile my palate was attracted to!
Perhaps it’s in this Ninefold Rum too!
That’s really interesting and it’s good to see I’m not wrong in being curious about the differences between the different types of oak.
Kit did mention he is maturing some distillates that can eventually be compared so I’m looking forward to that!