Review: Mad River Distillers Maple Cask Rum

Vermont is known for a handful of things: beautiful leaves, Bernie Sanders, and maple syrup. That last one is a particular favorite of my wife, who keeps literal gallon jugs of maple syrup on hand at all times. And the folks at Mad River Distillers seem to agree with her, since they have an entire like of maple cask finished spirits on offer. Today we’re testing out their Maple Cask Rum, and I’m definitely looking forward to the results.

History

As with most distilleries, this one’s history starts with someone getting restless. Maura Connolly wanted a change of pace from her day job and dreamed of opening a vineyard in upstate Vermont — a notion that her friends quickly helped dissuade her from, since the weather isn’t exactly ideal for growing grapes that far north. The dream didn’t stop there, though, as her helpful husband and apple brandy enthusiast John suggested they try their hand at a distillery instead. The couple partnered with Brett Little, a fellow apple brandy enthusiast, and together they founded Mad River Distillers.

The facility opened its doors in 2013 and started by producing rum, but has since expanded into a wide line of craft spirits including apple brandy, single malt whiskey, rye, and a couple different versions of that original rum. While their facility is a bit off the beaten path, my wife and I ran into them at their tasting room in downtown Burlington, Vermont where their helpful staff was more than happy to share their enthusiasm for the product.

Product

• Learn More: What Is Rum?

This is a variation of their First Run Rum, which we’ve reviewed previously.

The First Run Rum is named as such because it was the first kind of spirit that came off their still back in 2013, and remains one of the mainstays of the distillery’s product line. It also serves as the base spirit for a number of different finished spirits they make, including maple cask and sherry cask finishes.

While the distillery generally prides itself on using non-GMO locally sourced ingredients, sugar isn’t something that is native to northern Vermont. For this spirit, they start with fair trade certified all-natural cane sugar sourced from either Texas or Malawi (depending on the season) that is then added to pure spring water from the farm where their distillery is located and fermented with yeast to create a mildly alcoholic liquid. They then run this concoction through a still, selectively capturing the flavors that they want and concentrating the alcohol content to the desired level.

Once distilled, the spirit is then placed into new charred American oak barrels, the same maturation process used for bourbon whiskey. There’s no age statement, so we don’t know exactly how long the spirit is matured, but eventually it is blended with other barrels of the same batch.

This is where things get interesting for this bottle: the distillery trades barrels back and forth with Wood’s Vermont Maple Syrup company, who use their used First Run Rum barrels to produce a rum matured version of their maple syrup. Eventually, those barrels come back to Mad River, where the distillery then places some finished First Run Rum back into the now deliciously syrupy barrel for an additional period of time. That then is proofed down and bottled, resulting in what we are tasting here today.

Packaging

There’s not a whole lot of chances being taken here on the design, but I think all of the choices here make sense for this distillery.

For the bottle, they’ve gone with a standard design for modern distilleries: cylindrical body, rounded shoulder, medium length neck, and capped with a wood and cork stopper. It’s a design we see commonly, since it’s difficult and expensive to get custom made glass bottles. This design tends to look cleaner on the shelf and (probably more importantly for their tourist-y Burlington location) has a tendency to survive transport either in checked baggage or long drives.

I love that they haven’t gone overboard with the label. The paper is a clean design with some rustic touches like the font and the yellowed paper, but it isn’t going overboard either with the size or the embellishments. They made the decision to let the color of the spirit shine through and be the star of the show, and that’s exactly what I like to see in designs.

One thing I do want to note is the border along the top of the main label. At first I thought this was a lazy way of making the label look a bit aged, like it had frayed or ripped somehow. But looking at the product line across multiple different versions, you’ll notice that this irregular line actually denotes the category of spirit that you’ve got through the color of the ink used. It’s a neat trick to visually group the spirits together and add a bit of flair.

Neat

For their First Run Rum, there was a distinct combination of rum and whiskey aromas going on, but here that seems to have collapsed into a single identity of brown sugar and vanilla. With a little patience you might be able to tease out the marshmallow and some baking spices too, but that rich brown sugar note is a huge part of the experience.

Taking a sip, this is a noticeably darker and richer rum than you might expect. Right off the bat, I’m getting notes of brown sugar and dark chocolate, which are significantly more enhanced compared to the First Run Rum (which, in case you forgot, is the starting base for this spirit). There’s also a significantly heavier weight to the liquid — it’s more like whole milk compared to the part-skim that was the First Run Rum (in terms of texture and feeling, not flavor). As the flavor develops, the cinnamon and clove spices start to develop and are a delicious addition, and near the end there’s a delicious combination that tastes like concentrated maple syrup and baking spices which lingers on your palate.

On the finish, I get a little bit of an “aromatic lift” in the form of some marshmallow and light cedar notes, but it’s just an extra embellishment to the end of an otherwise delicious flavor profile and not something overwhelming.

On Ice

This is an interesting turn of events that I didn’t quite expect, but I like it. Usually, I expect that the added ice will kill any lighter and more delicate flavors in a spirit, leaving behind only the richer and heartier versions. But here, we actually have the opposite: the heavier, concentrated maple syrup flavor has been reduced enough that the sweet marshmallow from the raw sugar is finally making a strong showing.

What results is a sweet, delicious drink that has the depth and the sweetness to balance itself out beautifully. There’s the dark chocolate, the baking spices, and even the lighter marshmallow all on display, but that maple syrup is adding some weight and some depth to the flavor profile that elevates the whole experience.

Cocktail (Old Fashioned)

The first time I had this spirit at the Mad River tasting room, it was in an old fashioned and it impressed me so much I purchased the bottle on that alone. I was a little nervous that maybe I was remembering it with some rose-colored classes (maple-syrup-colored glasses?), but thankfully, even at home this doesn’t disappoint.

What’s really great here is the combination of the dark chocolate and the concentrated maple syrup. That sweetness and richness gives the herbal notes in the bitters a wonderful foil to work against, and leads to an amazing balance in the cocktail.

I love a darker and richer version of an old fashioned, but usually I only get that with a well aged bourbon. But here, I’m getting that same experience with a delicious rum. And I love it.

Fizz (Dark & Stormy)

To be consistent in our review standards, we also have to try this in our usual dark & stormy configuration, even though the First Run Rum version didn’t hold up so well. And while it does a little bit better than First Run, I think it still falls short of the mark.

What’s working here is that I’m getting a good balance of the flavors: there’s enough depth and richness in the dark chocolate, the brown sugar, and the concentrated maple syrup to temper the ginger beer and lime juice. What’s left is a nice cocktail that still has some brightness to it, but isn’t overpowering.

That said, I don’t think I’m really getting the full benefit of this spirit in this cocktail. What I’d like to see is more of the maple syrup coming through and adding to the flavor profile of what we have, but instead it seems to be lost in the sauce.

Overall Rating

This is probably one of the more delicious rums I’ve had. I like them funky, I like them fruity, and in this case we’re getting something with the sweetness and the complexity that I would normally expect from a well aged bourbon. It’s a fantastic marriage of distilled spirits with something uniquely Vermont, and the results speak for themselves.

If I have one criticism, it would be that I think they could kick up the maple syrup flavor a little bit more. Rum is a spirit that lends itself to maturation, and picks up complimentary flavors very easily. I feel like they could have left this in the barrel a little longer and come out with something fantastic. But even as-is, this is one of the better rums I’ve had recently.

All reviews are evaluated within the context of their specific spirit classification as specified above. Click here to check out similar spirits we have reviewed.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5
A rich, sweet, and delicious rum that perfectly embodies the flavors of Vermont.