Kirk and Sweeney 18 Year Old Rum

Kirk and Sweeney 18 Year Old Rum

Kirk and Sweeney was the name of a wooden schooner that was best known for smuggling rum from the Caribbean to the United States during Prohibition," says August Sebastiani, President of 35 Maple Street Distillery. Just before it entered the territorial waters of the United States, the schooner would drop anchor and sell the rum to smaller boats which would come up alongside the Kirk and Sweeney. The smaller boats, which were faster and more maneuverable than the boats in the Coast Guard's fleet, would smuggle the rum ashore. As other boats followed suit, the edge of U.S. jurisdiction the line where boats like the Kirk and Sweeney dropped anchor became known as the "Rum Line" and the row of ships waiting to sell rum on the Rum Line were said to be anchored on "Rum Row." Kirk and Sweeney 18 Year Old Rum is a rum crafted in the Dominican Republic from raw sugarcane. After being distilled, the rum is aged for 18 years in American oak casks. As a result, it has a deep amber and iridescent copper color along with an aroma of dried fruits and sweet, toasted breads. On the palate, initial hints of honey, toffee and caramelized sugar lead to subtler notes of almond and vanilla, which finally give way to bursts of figs, dried plums, caramel and sherry on the finish. "Playing off the concept of global navigation," says Sebastiani, "we silkscreened an antique nautical map of the main rum smuggling route around the circumference of the bottle" of Kirk and Sweeney Rum. In addition, the neck of the bottle is hand-numbered with the rum's batch and bottle number, while a photo of the Kirk and Sweeney and the bottle's safety seal are printed to look like authentic nautical brass. "The overall design serves as a reminder of the risk so many were willing to take for a good taste of rum during the 1920s," says Sebastiani. This limited edition 18 year old bottling builds off of the success of Kirk and Sweeney's flagship 12 year old rum, which earned a score of 95 points from Wine Enthusiast and was named one of the Top 50 Spirits of 2013.