Because of our location in a mountain town, we get a lot of tourists and first-time visitors to the Tasting Room. Some of them come in without realizing that they’re entering a distillery and will even swear they don’t drink rum. When our bartenders convince them to give us a try, they’re often surprised by what they taste. They don’t realize how diverse rum can be, or that it doesn’t have to be sweet or full of “funk.”

The marque of Montanya Rums is that they are 100% pot distilled and considered to be “low ester” in the world of premium rum. This is in contrast to the high ester rums from Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean, often described as having “funk.” Esters form during longer fermentations when acids are produced and they come to life during aging in the barrel. While high-ester rums are well-respected and sought after by many consumers, it’s not what we make at Montanya. Our fermentations produce low acidity during their 6-7 day lifespan.

Matt Pietrek of CocktailWonk provides a great way to think about all of this. “Much like bakeries make many styles of breads, distilleries have ways to make many different rums. Some batches may be created to be very light with delicate flavors, other batches may target an intensely strong and pungent style,” he says “From the types of molasses and yeasts used to the temperature and fermentation time, and continuing on to distillation choices (pot vs. column, when “cuts” are made, etc.) a distillery can craft any number of different flavor profiles.”

At Montanya, our style of rum is generally lighter, drier, less funky and more oak forward than many pot distilled rums. As we often explain in the Tasting Room, the main differences between Montanya rums result from how they are aged. All of our expressions come off the still exactly the same and clear in color, but the aging process is different for each one.

Montanya Oro goes into a fresh and wet whiskey barrel from Laws Whiskey House in Denver. These barrels are actually charred prior to holding the whiskey, and still have whiskey in their pores. This imparts a lot of flavor and color into the rum, and is why we choose our barrel aging partnerships so carefully. With Laws Whiskey, we absolutely love the red chili and capsicum notes that come through in all of our rums.

The Platino, on the other hand, goes into a barrel that has already aged whiskey and our Oro. This changes the color and the flavor that get imparted into the rum. The Platino rum is also filtered using coconut husk carbon filtration, removing the color imparted by the barrel and making the rum clear. Owner Karen Hoskin’s main goal with this rum was to create a light rum that possessed the flavor characteristics of an aged rum, making it great for daiquiris, Hemingway daiquiris, mojitos, and more. (If you’re going to put fresh and delicious ingredients like fresh lime in a strong cocktail, it makes sense to use the smoothest rum possible, right?)

For our Exclusiva and limited-edition Valentia, the aging process is even more complex. The Exclusiva ages two and a half years in Laws Whiskey barrel and finishes for six months in a French Oak barrel that previously aged Cabernet Sauvignon and Port. The Valentia is also a double maturation, aging for four years in a Laws Whiskey barrel and finishing in a Catoctin Creek Rye Barrel. As you can imagine, the longer aging and the finishing barrels create unique flavor profiles.

Montanya rums also tend to be drier than other rum brands, primarily because they aren’t sweetened with sugar caramel and colorings like many distillers do. Some of our rums do receive a tiny touch of Colorado honey, but we don’t use it as a sweetener. It’s actually the acidity of the honey that helps bring out the rum’s natural flavors.

Tasting Notes

You can find age statements and full tasting notes for each of our rums here, but here’s an overview of what our founder and owner picks up in each of our rums:

In Platino, Karen tastes notes of vanilla, cardamom and pineapple (if you’re palate isn’t cultivated yet, don’t worry. It will develop over time, and in the beginning you may simply notice that this rum tastes fruitier). In Oro, Karen tastes strong notes of crème brûlée, pear, vanilla and red chili.

Exclusiva has more of a tannic/vinous (or wine) finish as a result of the port and Cabernet Sauvignon previously stored in the finishing barrel. And Valentia, which is a very aromatic rum, offers cardamom, ginger, and honeysuckle with a spicy rye finish (some have told us they pick up on white flowers as well).

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