I had finished the year 2018 by proclaiming that I didn’t like retrospectives of all kinds … So here is my retrospective of a year 2019 rich in souvenirs 🙂
Well yes, there are only fools who don’t change their mind as they say in the Bouchonnois!
What can we learn from this past year?
Events
2019 has been an opportunity for me to participate in two very beautiful events that are as originals as exceptionals.
First in Martinique to participate as a judge in the first Martinique Rhum Awards, a first for me!
As well as in Cognac where my love for Caroni was satisfied in Hardcore mode with the famous Caroni Ceremony organized by Luca Gargano.
Beyond the purely « Rum » aspect, these two events will have been remarkable for their human dimension. Very nice meetings and great moments of sharing … Another big thank you to the people who contributed to all of this!
Of course, other great meetings took place this year, including an evening with my friend Bert from Asta Morris in the north of the country, the friends at Whisky Live, at the Liège Whisky Festival and at the unmissable Salon du rhum de Spa .
Plus a whole series of evenings and other memorable encounters (Hello bollocks, bruts, amis of friends du rhum and many others!)
Martinique rhum awards 
Martinique rhum awards 
Martinique rhum awards 
Luca 
Caroni Ceremony 
Le fût à Roger 🙂
If we look at the facebook side, we slowly reach the 1000 like for the blog page …
I’m not particularly attached to this, but I tell myself that if so many people seem to appreciate the thing, it is because it has a use and therefore a reason in addition to continue in 2020!
Drinks…
Yep, 2019 will have been quite a pleasant tasting level with Hampden Great House, Le Bally 18 years old, Le Saint James 2003, Le Bielle YQM, Hampden 35 years old and a lot of other little treasures…
Doing a classification would be far too complicated and useless but basically, the Hampden Great House is for me THE nice surprise of the year 2019 for a reasonable budget.
I don’t think this rum is the best of the year, but it is the one with which I would have been the most enthusiastic in any case!
The Caroni 1993 from SBS being the « dirty one » of the year … really, I’ve rarely tasted such a ugly woody caroni 🙂
Le superbe Bally 18 
LA belle surprise 2019 
Des whisky de fous 
Le oldies 2019 
L’exceptionnel de 2019 !
Reading…
2019 was also an opportunity for my friend Cyril to release his first book: « Les silencieux, Du rhum et des hommes » ….
Cyril, this is the guy behind durhum.com, who is my favorite blog, and ma part des anges. The one with whom I started this passion and who has been accompanying me virtually from the start.
Of course, there are all the others: L’homme à la poussette, my friend Jérôme from Rhum ‘n Whisky, Lance from lone caner, Olivier from Who rhum the world, Marius from Single cask Rum etc etc (they are all at the end of the page 🙂 )
Big thank you to everyone for these moments of sharing and your passion …. and your stupid humor too 🙂
2020 ?
The new year will see the opportunity to start a brand new project, The Single Cast which aims to be the first French-speaking podcast on rum!
Project with Benoit Bail, Jerry and Laurent Cuvier of the blod « les rhums de l’homme à la poussette », blog that I have been from the beginning of this passion too. So it’s nice for me to share this with him!
For the events, it will be difficult to do more intense than 2019 but I intend to participate in the rum fair in Berlin and Bordeaux among others … As for surprises, we will see because it is of course the principle, we do not know in advance 🙂
In any case, know that I will continue what I have been doing here since April 2017 … and this throughout the year 2020 🙂
See you soon and best wishes for health, happiness and success for 2020 in advance!
