Two rums on offer are from distilleries that were originally developed by Scots. In 1790, it was believed that a third of all Europeans in the Caribbean - 6,000 people - were Scots.
Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
Friday, 4 April 2008 POSTED BY Mark Reynier IN Library
Those immortal words were written by Robert Lewis Stevenson in 1881 when he was writing Treasure Island - the same year that Bruichladdich was founded by William Harvey and his two brothers.
Robert Lewis Stevenson had another connection to Islay and the Hebridean coast. He also wrote the epic “Kidnapped”, published 5 years later, a story about a boy called David Balfour’s Highland adventures inspired by the trial of James Stewart for the murder of Colin Cambell of Glenure.
In the story, Balfour is washed up on the ‘island’ of Erraraid, his kidnappers’ ship having foundered on the dangerous Torran rocks for want of a lighthouse. In fact, Dubh Artachlighthouse was built by his father a decade earlier to warn of those same Torran Rocks.
You see, Robert Lewis Stevenson’s family were lighthouse builders – 4 generations of the family built extraordinary lighthouses around the Hebridean islands. Robert’s father, Thomas Stephenson, built all the lighthouses around Islay: Isle of Ornsay 1857, Ruvaal 1859, McArthurs Head 1861, Lochindaal 1869, and Skervuile 1865 so Robert knew the area well. When he wrote those piratanical verses he could well have been referring to a Friday night in Port Ellen…
We are pleased to release the first bottling of the Renegade Rum Company.
We’ve been playing with rums for a while using the Murray McDavid label for a handful of bottlings – one of which was declared in the World’s Top 50 spirits of the year in 2006 by Paul Paccult’s Malt Enthusiast with a 96-100 rating. Encouraged by that success, we are now taking it more seriously.
Islay bottled, single distillery rum ACE’d by Jim in stunning French oak casks for added flavour, texture and originality. This is not your rum and coke spirit; nor your pirate’s Yo! Ho! Ho! liquor; nor your cocktail umbrella’d breezer readymix drink. No, this is rum Unplugged – and boy is it good. Savour the flavour, enjoy it like a single malt.
