Partagas Lusitania (TEB May 08) – Isla del Tesoro Rum

It is not easy to be grumpy down on the northern NSW coast – such a beautiful place. Family has been coming here since before I was born. Fishing was far better then, but where was it not? I try and get up and do the dawn beach walk each morning (lot of rain coming later in the week so there might be a sleep-in).

Exquisite this morning. But there is always someone who’ll throw a Spaniard in the works. Every now and again, the horse brigade turn up – if you think cyclists who believe that road rules are not for them and wobble along, lycra-clad fifty-year-olds, two abreast while traffic piles up behind, are bad, they have nothing on horse people. They really do believe they are above any form of courtesy and rules. Their horses crap all over the beach, usually to their amusement. This was such a morning.

Then there are the dog walkers. Most of the dogs are great – far better than their owners – but every so often, there will be a big slobbering thing who insists on, well, slobbering all over you. One such woman had it explained to her in no uncertain terms this morning that perhaps she might like to control the thing (it spent the rest of its walk on a leash and she came nowhere near me again). Not even an apology. Toss in that the braindead football management from a team that once was the pinnacle in the competition had seen it lose even more players, and I was definitely grumpy. I think Rob can attest to that. 

Spent a few hours doing tasting notes for the WinePilot site. I had been following a box I had up on BR but in a week, not a single bid and with fifteen minutes to go, I gave up. Then Rob rings back, suggesting I have a look. Bidding had exploded. As much as I greave for losing a great box, with the search on for the new digs, perfect timing. So a reward was needed.

Headed downstairs and outside to my absolute fave sport in the world for a cigar – it has been mentioned several times before. Had a visit from Leonard, a young bearded dragon who is surprisingly content with being approached. And then settled in. And decided to go big!

I had discovered that the burglars had missed the last dregs of my Isla del Tesoro so what better time. And the cigar? Love a good Lusi, so I happened to have a ten-box from TEB May 08. So Partagas Lusitania it was. And what exceptional condition it was in! Had a couple of books – an amazing collection from an early resident of Brisbane who had written much on our early history, including a lengthy book on fishing in local Moreton Bay. Read a bit of that and then spent the rest of the afternoon with a cracking Cold War spy novel by Joseph Kanon, “Defectors”. Great stuff all round.

The cigar? The best I have had in ages. It started powerfully but soon settled. The construction proved as good as it appeared, the burn measured and even throughout, and not a hint of a relight needed. Notes of honey kicked in. Cinnamon and spices. It was gentle, subtle and complex. A brilliant start and then it only got better (may I add that at no stage was there the slightest hint of caramel). 

It soon moved to darker flavours, a hint of black cherry. After the first third, it kicked up a notch and settled into the most lustrous cocoa powder notes. Complex, subtle, stunning. What a cigar. Glorious chocolate but that cocoa powder remained right to the finish. Cigars simply do not get much better. That mid section was not a 100 point cigar – 110 plus! In the end, I gave it 99, because there was some excess heat on the finish. Amazing for a 13 year-old cigar. I have no doubt that well stored, and that is an issue at the moment beachside, this would see another couple of decades and easily earn that extra point.

The rum? I will dig out a piece I wrote for Quill and Pad a few years ago and steal from it. No sense in reinventing the wheel.

Great rum is a strange beast. There is no question that rum at its finest is as thrilling a spirit as to be found on this planet. And, yet, that is rarely reflected in the price (a good thing) or discussions among spirit aficionados (not such a good thing).

Sure, there are a few of great age in ornate decanters at mind-numbing prices, but in general in the world of spirits there is no better value than a top rum. This, of course, leads to debates about just what is the greatest rum ever made. I can’t claim to have tried every one, sadly, but there is a mythical bottling that truly embodies everything that is great about rum: pirates, buried treasure, missing gems, tropical islands and silver ghosts.

My search for the greatest rum started nearly two decades ago, although I didn’t know it at the time. I was on one of my early visits to Cuba – friends and I had started to travel regularly to Cuba to chase the silver ghost.

For the uninitiated, “silver ghost” is the nickname given to one of the world’s great sport fish, the amazing bonefish found on the salt flats of Las Salinas. Unlike most sport fish, bonefish are not huge monsters. Rather, they are reasonably small, nosing about the shallows for a careless shellfish. 

Their attraction lies in the extraordinary power they have for their size, and the speeds they can reach when hooked. I swear my first bonefish stripped 100 meters off the reel in the first four seconds.

I will confess that we also took time to enjoy the music, rum, scenery and cigars on offer on that wonderful island, making many friends over the years. Some of those rums were eye-openers, and on my first trip I returned home with a bottle of the Ron Santiago de Cuba Extra Añejo, one of a limited release of 12,000 bottles to celebrate the 485th anniversary of the town of Santiago (who knows quite why it celebrated a 485th?). It was so successful that Santiago (the distiller, not the town) – for me the leading Cuban producer – morphed it into the Ron Santiago 20 Years, now part of its regular production. It was a revelation: smooth, subtle, and with such persistence of flavors. Though I have never tasted a Ron Santiago 20 Years which quite matched that first release. 

On a subsequent visit, I asked Hamlet Paredes if there was anything that could compare. As well as a brilliant cigar roller, Hamlet loves his rums. He told me of another and promised to chase it for me. By the time of the next visit, he had located a rare bottle of the Ron Edmundo Dantès Gran Reserva 25 Years. It was superb. And of course, I did not stop there.

“Anything better?” I asked, more in hope than expectation.

Hamlet laughed and thought about it. “No,” he said, ”unless the legend of the Isla del Tesoro is real.”

“Treasure Island”? Naturally, I had to know more. Hamlet told me the story. But first.

I will delete the next section as it is about the origins of Cohiba, a story I am sure that all on the forum know well.

Well, unbeknownst to almost everyone, a similar program was set up with the Santiago distillery to blend a rum without peer, which could also be given to heads of state, though one suspects a fair bit found its way to Castro.

I say “blend,” as this rum was made from very old material, much of it two decades or more in age, that was distilled many years before the Revolution. Word did filter out about this mythical rum but, as Hamlet told me, he’d only ever heard vague stories. Neither he nor anyone he knew had ever seen a bottle, let alone tasted it.

I never forgot the story, though I never expected to find a bottle.

And then one day, perusing a wine auction for an upcoming sale in Sydney, in the miscellaneous section at the back – normally a few spirits, glasses, and oddities – was a listing for “Isla del Tesoro. Cuban Rum, est’d $20.”

I put in a bid well over that, which was still a comparative steal, and watched every day to see if anyone countered. If they did not, I would have it for $20.

To my intense annoyance, on the last day someone leapfrogged me. And so, for the rest of the day, we edged up. When time expired, it was mine – for around A$220 if I recall. Not the $20 I’d hoped for, but still, if it was what I hoped, a wonderful bargain.

It arrived a few days later, and I must say I’m not sure what I was expecting. A parade as it was carried up the street? Courtiers in attendance? Trumpets? Instead, I received a small cardboard box with a drab clay pot – a bit underwhelming. I discovered later that the originals came in a small treasure chest with a map. Mine had a little rotting paper but the chest was long gone. No matter.

It took some time before I found a suitable occasion to open it, and I did so with much trepidation. I should never have doubted; what a glorious thing it was: far and away the most extraordinary spirit I have ever tried. 

This is to be drunk on bended knee: a kaleidoscope of stunning flavours, unimaginably complex, so long and so superbly balanced. I cannot imagine a rum that could outdo this gem.

I understand that the Santiago distillery has now implemented a program to revive this rum – although it will not be the “original” and I believe is now called ‘Isla de la Juventud’.

Rare bottles pop up for sale now and again, usually costing around A$700 to $1,000, though I have not seen any personally. But even if it is “in the style of,” this would be more than worth it. Anyone who ever doubted that rum could sit comfortably with any other spirit is in for a very pleasant surprise. If he or she can get hands on a bottle.

A pretty good day all round, even accounting for crapping horses, pain-in-the-arse dog owners and moronic football teams.

KBG.