Ultimatum Selected Rum

The Kingdom of the Netherlands, commonly referred  as Holland, breaks with the current image of a state commonly associated with legal prostitution, soft drugs, same-sex marriage or euthanasia and transforms into an open, inventive and inclusive Netherlands. In my opinion, the first set of associations illustrates exactly that - postulated by the government, The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions and business environment - 'new' and the desired image.

The Netherlands is the sixth largest economy in the EU, generating 3.5% of international turnover. The Dutch have extensive experience in trading, especially by sea. The Nederlanders are seen as pragmatists, endowed with amazing negotiating skills. These features seem to be indispensable for independent bottlers who periodically acquire materials from the opposite side of the globe and then release the final product under their own brand.

The Little Distiller belongs to the Ultimate Whiskey Company, which historically grows out of Firma J.H.  van Wees Junior (1921). The company initially was trading tobacco. Few decades later the owners reorganized the business into successful liquor wholesale company. In 1994, Han and Maurice van Wees introduced The Ultimate series, which has released to the present day over a thousand single malts. From the very beginning, the producer was guided by the idea of providing a high-quality product at an affordable price. Transparency is their hallmark.

The Little Distiller has been blending and releasing rum since 2016. The assortment varies and is divided into single cask selection and high quality blends. The latter group represents our today's hero - 'Ultimatum Selected Rum'.

The bottle in apothecary look hides a set of eight Caribbean molasses based rums. The label informs us about it, although it doesn't specify the components origin. Eight rums doesn't mean necessarily eight distilleries, neither eight source countries. The manufacturer's official website mentions Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana and I'm asking myself why these listing couldn't be represented on the label. However and to my great delight there is no sugar added nor coloring and the rum is non chill filtered.

Unfortunately, further information opens the field for interpretation. After all, 50% pot still can refer to either half of the bottle's volume or numerically half of the total amount of rums used. Classifying the blend to the Spanish style doesn't help either because it's mainly column stills made. Finally, on the manufacturer's website regarding the high quality blend, the solera system is mentioned with the following statement 'the age on the label is often the oldest in the system'. Therefore, I don't know how to interpret the label's '8 years old Rum'.