Virtuoso Life - March/April 2008 - (Page 64) TASTING NOTES epitomize this tropical, easygoing spirit. They come in a variety of styles, from light, mixable silver rums to ultra-premium sippers to artisanal rhums agricoles. Grab your swizzle stick: Our ports of call are beckoning, each with its own treasured rum. BarBados Cockspur Far-flung Barbados, the Caribbean’s easternmost island, lays claim to being the birthplace of “rumbullion,” a fiery ancestor of today’s rum that was first distilled on the island in the seventeenth century. It was also on Barbados that the curious young traveler George Washington got his first taste of rum – and loved it. (He would later distill his own at Mount Vernon.) Cockspur originated in 1884, when Danish immigrant Valdemar Hanschell opened a store that provisioned Barbados-docked ships with hardware, viands, and – of course – his house spirit. Today, Cockspur continues its tradition of intensely flavored Barbadian rums, blending them with spring water fil- tered through local coral to give them a special purity of flavor. Silky, mellow Cockspur 12 ($30) shows toasty oak, brown sugar, and dry flavors of exotic spice. A great all-rounder. 64 V I RT U O S O L I F E
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