Wensleydale Spiced Rum

Wensleydale Spiced Rum is a premium rum produced in Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales by a company that has so far been known for its award-winning craft gins.

The Wensleydale Spirit Company, makers of Wensleydale Spiced Rum, also own the award-winning Taplin & Mageean craft gin collection. And yes, you can make a London Dry Gin in Yorkshire, just as you can make rum anywhere in the world.

Wensleydale Spiced Rum

Wensleydale is known for many things, apart from its beautiful scenery. I know all about that as I’ve written two guidebooks to the Dales. It’s particularly noted for its cheese, of course, but for fine produce generally, including Theakston’s beer. But not, until now, for its rum.

Wensleydale Spiced Rum is made from fermented molasses, which is then double-distilled in alembic copper stills at the distillery in Leyburn Station, a station for the heritage Wensleydale Railway. To give it its spice notes, a mix of honey, cocoa, vanilla, mandarin zest, fresh ginger, black pepper and cardamom is then added. The ingredients were chosen in a nod to the sweets and chocolates that are also made in the Dales.

A Right Rum Do

The label describes the rum as ‘A Right Rum Do’. These days the phrase means something that’s odd or unusual, but when the phrase was first used in the 16th century it actually meant something that was of excellent quality.

Look closer at the label and you see quite some attention to detail, as it incorporates other aspects of the Dales, with its rolling hills and valleys, and its ancient viaducts that cross those valleys.

‘Rum Face’

Co-owner of the company Chris Young says: ‘With the spiced rum, we undertook a lot of research, and in the end, the light-hearted mantra in the distillery was to create a rum that didn’t give the drinker “rum face” – that recoil that often occurs when people take a shot of rum. This recoil is generally due to poor base alcohol, or poor use of spices. We found that most people who used mixers such a coke etc in rum did so to mask the taste of the rum. Go figure, the rum was so rough that it needed masking!’

Tasting Wensleydale Spiced Rum

There’s no danger of ‘rum face’ with this Wensleydale Spiced Rum, which is bottled at 42% ABV (84 proof). On the nose it’s an intriguing mix of sweet and spicy. There’s honey and vanilla for sweetness, but the pepper and cardamom also both come through.

Tasting it, the rum offers up all the flavours that are packed in there. Again, honey and vanilla are most evident at first, then there’s the fruity zing from the mandarin zest, but swirl it around a little and the pepper and ginger also emerge. It definitely leaves a spicy taste as it slips down. It’s certainly one to enjoy sipping neat, but if you like your rum and coke, make sure you use a quality cola like Fever Tree’s Madagascan Cola,

Buying Wensleydale Spiced Rum

You can buy Wensleydale Spiced Rum direct from their website in 20cl and 50cl bottles, or in a case of six bottles. They ship worldwide, or if you’re in the Yorkshire Dales you can buy direct from their shop.