As me, you think that the Savanna range of rums is as simply to understand than a woman ?
Here is a small guide to understand what’s going on… or not 🙂
Big thanks to Cedric S, great fan of the distillery… for him, it’s quite simple… Mmmm sure ?
So, are you ready ? Let’s go !
At Savanna, there is 3 big families of rums, in white or aged ones.
Agricol (Créol)
Pure cane juice distilled from Savalle Column
Traditionnal (Intense)
Molasses distilled from Savalle Column
Grand Arôme (Lontan)
Molasses distilled from Savalle Column or pot Still (HERR)
First information so, there is pure cane juice and molasses … Why not, that’s not the first time.
There is also Grands Arômes. Not the only distillery to do that, but clearly more rare.
To these 3 families, you can add HERR (High Ester Rum Réunion) who’s a sort of grand arôme++
Only the HERR is distilled from the pot still, the rest is only from the column.
Whites
Let’s start with the easy ones, non aged rums… It could seem easy but I’m sure I’ll lose some of you here 🙂
Two Intense at 40% et 55%, one créol at 45% and one Lontan at 40% are in the classic range.
So one pure sugar cane rum and 3 molasse’s rums.
But as it seemed too simple, they added some funny things:
Since last year, you can find one Savanna Lontan 57%, Savanna Créol 52% seems to be a desire to recast the range to better match a demand.
One Savanna HERR 57%, which is an experiment on the durations of fermentations among others and which titrate more than those mentioned above.
So technically we are already with 7 whites rums strongly differents…to which we can add an lontan for LMDW and a other one (HERR) from Habitation Velier, but if we start with the IB we are screwed !
Aged
Here we have a relatively classic range composed as follows:
- Métis that’s a Traditional aged 6 month at 40%
- Traditional 5 yo 43%
- Traditional 7 yo 43%
- Traditional 10 yo 43% (always a vintage, 2006 now)
- Traditional 3 yo no longer seems relevant.
Here it is already simpler because no distinction, there is no pure juice aged in the classic range. (But good for single cask)
Singles cask
For these, welcome to the world where the Demerara Marks pass for a disconcerting easy !
For each of these three large families, a finish is possible and a reduction or not.
They are: :
Calvados
Moscatel
Xeres
Porto
Whisky
Herr
By default, they all go to Cognac casks and can be finished afterwards.
The only exception is the Porto blend of 14 years of this year, it is the first that is aged in port full time barrel, besides that is why they assembled it with a classic GA in barrel of Cognac otherwise it was too Porto.
Obviously said like that it may seem simple … but in the end not that much because you have to imagine the 3 large families with these 6 finishes … and a reduction to 46% or a raw version.
To this must be added the ages …. ha yeah, because a lontan finishing Porto of 8 years or a lontan finish Porto of 10 years is not the same.
We can also add a very nice notion that is the place of aging because they have « chais humide » and others not … and it changes (in any case they mention it).
Conclusion
Basically, Savanna has a range as rich and complex as its productions …
Personally I confess to lose myself easily, for example for the only traffic jam that I always have in my collection, it is impossible for me to say directly that it is Savanna Lontan 12 years / 64,2 °!
In any case, if you flashed for a single cask in particular, do not whistle your bottle too fast because it will be very difficult to find the same combo!
I hope this light guide has been helpful … I think this one could be more detailed and complete, but this job will be for someone else! 🙂
That 64.2% 12 Year Old is definitely one of the best Savanna rums I’ve ever tried, if not the best.
Good news so 😀 I’ve cracked one herr and one chais humide…
The herr is good but definitivly not an easy one. The 8yo chais humide is very well but perhaps too high abv.. hope this 12yo has a better integration.