It is certainly true that pot stilled, high ester rum is one of the hallmarks of the Jamaican style. And I agree that it’s a real shame that Appleton doesn’t offer at least one, balls-to-the-wall pot stilled product.

But there’s another element I’d like to cover: fermentation, which is even more responsible for the Jamaican style. Typical fermentations run a couple days. In Jamaica there are often ultra long ferments, from 5 days to 2 weeks. Even more important is the addition of “dunder” to the ferment.

Dunder is the spent wash of former distillations, high in butyric acids (and a rotten smell, somewhat beyond “rancio”). Some of the dunder pits (where this spent wash is stored) are years old!

The result are rums with WAY more esters than other styles – from 80 up to 1700 esters! This is the real source of your Jamaican aromatics. Sue Sea and I also believe that the dunder (rancid) component comes through in the final product.

I refer you to Pusser’s Blue Label, Sea Wynde and Jack Tar Dark. You will quickly find that less than elusive dunder component is common to all, and one that you will almost immediately identify due to its unique nature.

Wow! We truly love this component, even though minimized in the Appleton column/pot blends. Our favorite: Appleton Extra 12 Year, which we prefer even to the 21. The only Appleton I had problems with was the Reserve, which somehow doesn’t seem to belong in the line up.

For more details:
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewforum.php?f=3