Privateer Rum: A Ruffian Among Raiders

Alright, I’ll drop the pirate speak. It’s too common among rum as a genre of spirit, and it’s also hard to type a lot of.

Privateer Rum was started in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and inspired by a legendary privateer who did business during the American Revolution. They are headed up by the efforts of Maggie Campbell. They operate under the banner of no sweetening, no additives, no filtering.

Recently, I took the time to inspect seven of their offerings. This panel was made up a variety of styles:

One unaged, overproof release

Two rotating availability single cask releases

Four Distiller’s Drawer single casks

Privateer is, as you may have guessed, not very old. They’re almost brand new, relatively speaking, in the world of spirits. This was a large cause for concern to me, personally, because young independent producers are at the largest risk for failure: both in production quality, and financial success. Since they’re not sourcing, they have no backlog of well aged product to sell while their own product ages. This puts them in the figurative lions den of the spirits industry, and can cause a lot of pressure on new operations.

These stresses aside, they’re plowing forward and releasing a variety of products at ages typically around the two and three year mark. If you’ve been following my Craft Whiskey Crackdown, over in the land of bourbon and American whiskey, you’d likely be right to assume that this is a mark of dread on Privateer. I shared that same expectation of dread when I heard how young they were releasing product, but curiosity still led me on. There are very few rum producers in the US that are this young, and also pursuing the same goals as Privateer, so the promise of at least something new and interesting was enough to take the plunge.

Over a week, I took the time to sit down with seven different releases that they’ve sold in the past several months. Here is the list, and their rankings. If you aren’t aware how I rank things, you only need to peek over to the sidebar. To see how they fit into my opinions on the whole, check out my comprehensive reviews archive.

So, without rehashing every single review (the links are there to read the reviews), we can at least look at a couple of things. The variability is pretty wide, with everything from a three to a seven. That is half of the review scale right there, but it skews much more towards the 5+ end of the spectrum, which is promising. The ratings are fairly one dimensional looks into the quality, but on the surface, we can see that this is no TerrePURE encounter. That’s a relief.

The elephant in the room is The Queen’s Share, of which I had batch P143. I didn’t enjoy this batch, as I found it thin and fairly vapid. Digging a little deeper, I realized that this is a single barrel product, oddly chosen to be significantly different with each batch. I suppose that I should try many more batches. Maybe another one will be more up my alley.

On the other side of the swing set, we have Cigar Box, which netted a fairly impressive seven. I didn’t really expect that something of this quality would come from a two or three year rum, but it really surprised me.

In the middle, we have a single four, a pair of fives and a pair of sixes. I think that says enough on its own.

Without turning this into an analysis of raw scores, or something akin to a sales pitch, I wanted to sit down and share my thoughts about Privateer, if for no other reason than personal bewilderment. Privateer’s no nonsense approach is ballsy, and their release of young spirit is even more so, but it seems to be working for them.

On the whole, I think that their spirit is still pretty young. I think the profiles they are selecting right now, especially the Distiller’s Drawer single casks really play well with youth, and don’t accentuate some flaws that most young distillate has trouble hiding. The prime offender is wet cardboard-y notes, grassy undertones, and an oat-y sugary taste in other young distillate. They managed to generally avoid most of these. This is a huge asset, since Maggie has noted that they have many casks continuing to age so that they have older releases. I imagine that some of the flaws I found in the batch of Queen’s Share could be helped with age as well as some different cask selection.

Coincidentally, though, I enjoyed the unaged, steel tanked, overproof release. This is distilled from 100% molasses (and is different than their silver rum). As a huge fan of funky, fiery, ester bombs like Hampden Rumfire, Wray and Nephew Overproof and Smith & Cross Navy Proof, this was more on par with something similar to the profile of a younger Plantation Overproof. This is obviously the result of more sterile fermentation, but I felt that it is worth noting. If you’re looking for a buttery cocktail spine, this might be of use. This says a lot about the new make they can churn out, which segues nicely into my final point.

Many people are of the mind that maturation can cover a multitude of sins. A number of times I’ve been told that I didn’t enjoy a craft distillery’s products because they were too young. “It’s bad now, but in 4 or 5 years, you’ll be amazed,” is a phrase commonly muttered. I think that putting bad distillate in barrels can sometimes yield good results, but often doesn’t yield great results. Buying unaged, near still proof distillate is a luxury we don’t get in the bourbon or scotch world. In rum land, though, this is not only an option, but it’s a common one. Privateer has three specific distillate runs, based on the sugar source they use, so their unaged overproof isn’t a look at the full spectrum, but it’s a fun glimpse into potentially what is up to a third of their base product at their disposal. They did well with this recipe, but I wish we could try the other two.

If trying new, young, releases from a micro producer is the shallow end of a risky pool, single barrels surely take you to the deep end. Here, there is no blending. It is sink or swim. Good barrel vs. bad barrel. Blending is a new producer’s single most valuable material asset (besides a mountain of cash) because some flaws can be covered by the strengths in the profile of other added barrels. Single barrels don’t afford this luxury, but distillers also get the opportunity to release their best barrels in these releases. I generally found the casks that I tried to be good to great, Queen’s Share aside, although there was very little differentiation in profile. Privateer is all about those maple, molasses and syrupy notes, with some wanderings into faintly fruity profiles, or a hint of tobacco. I don’t see this as a particularly large flaw, but there isn’t a ton of single cask variation – at least from the barrels they’ve picked and released so far.

At the end of the day, I think that Privateer is a distillery to watch. Their decision on how they handle the next couple years will firmly cement them into one of several industry categories. From what I’ve tasted thus far, I’m impressed and hopeful that they can continue this trajectory. It isn’t often that you can find something that is from a micro producer, well priced, and palatable. You’re lucky if you get to pick two of those descriptors with most other producers.

I will be watching Privateer with interest. I respect what Maggie is doing, and I hope they do not lose sight of their current path. Keep up what you are doing in Ipswitch, Privateer, and never stop learning and taking risks.