Comparison: Gregarious Grump – Guyana – Diamond Distillery – 16 Year – 52.1% vs. 54.5%
Stats: Houston-based indie bottler Gregarious Grump brought three casks of 16 year old Guyanese rum to market as part of their first batch of releases. They were each released at different proofs without additives or dilution.
Background: Last year a friend from FL hipped me to the fact that someone named Gregarious Grump released a TX exclusive Port Mourant. I immediately hopped on the interwebs to see for myself. Sure enough, I found some online reviews and the company’s website indicating not just one but three casks of Port Mourant were bottled. As far as I could tell it was only available in the Houston area so I asked my friendly neighborhood boozery if they could get it to Austin. I was informed soon after that they had arrived, so I dropped everything and zipped over to see what deliciousness awaits. The shop received the 52.1% and 54.5% expressions, of which I purchased one of each. There is also a 48.8% version they did not get that I have yet to try.
Disclaimer: Before I share my impressions, I want to make it clear that neither of these distillates tasted like Port Mourant to my palate. After discussing the matter and sharing samples with some friends who are well versed in the profiles of the different stills at Diamond, we agreed it shared no resemblance to PM. So I reached out to the owner of GG to see where this PM claim originated and posited that it tasted like Savalle distillate to me and others. He was very responsive and we had a nice back and forth dialogue about it. I even sent him some known PM samples to compare his to, which resulted in him removing the language referring to these as Port Mourant from his website as he does not want to make false claims or mislead consumers.
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#1: Gregarious Grump – Guyana – Diamond Distillery – 16 Year – 52.1%
Nose: Worn leather, coconut scented lotion, peppermint candy, menthol, old shoes, soursop, cinnamon, blueberry, brown sugar, chocolate.
Mouth: There’s an initial bright sweetness followed by light soy sauce, salinity, and some heat. A bit of bitterness from the wood transcends to lingering tobacco. The mouthfeel is thick and viscous. Swishing it around brings out a lot of the wood influence. After some time resting, caramel and baking spices surface, though it seems to have thinned out and become oily and dull. I hit it with a couple drops of water to see what might develop and dirty gym bag revealed itself.
Final Thoughts: This is a very decent sipping rum, and I could see it having mass appeal because of its approachability. It actually reminds me of the Holmes Cay Uitvlugt, which was also made on the Savalle Still (Review coming soon). That said, this is rich, non-offensive, and easy to drink.
My Score: 3
My Scale:
1 – I don’t want this in my mouth ever again
2 – Best used for mixing
3 – Decent sipper
4 – Very enjoyable
5 – I’m buying a back up bottle
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#2: Gregarious Grump – Guyana – Diamond Distillery – 16 Year – 54.5%
Nose: Some heat, brown sugar, caramel, burnt molasses, vanilla frosting, yeast, baking spice, chlorine
Mouth: Barrel spice, rich molasses, some bitter tannins. Mild heat, mild cigar, leather, cola syrup
Final Thoughts: This may seem a cop out description, but this tastes exactly like rum. Like if you wanted to present someone a quintessential profile for rum, look no further. Rich, smooth, molasses-forward with barrel spice. Wholly inoffensive, classic Demerara profile.
My Score: 3
My Scale:
1 – I don’t want this in my mouth ever again
2 – Best used for mixing
3 – Decent sipper
4 – Very enjoyable
5 – I’m buying a back up bottle
Overall I think both rums are solid expressions that will appeal to the general public. It’s good rum. It’s just not Port Mourant.
Austin Rum Society 
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