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Get a taste for The Chairman's Reserve at Taste of London

Pauline and I, have been invited to Taste of London festival by our friends at IPB - they have a bartender challenge event that seems like it will be extremely good fun.  A good chance to catch up with the team, but I am afraid I'm going to have to use the V word - there's no way around it (sorry).  The top team of bartenders they have assembled will be working with Chase Vodka.  Absolutely nothing wrong with the product I'm sure, but as it's not rum I won't be writing about it for this blog site.  We would have nipped up to Regents Park after work that would have been that.  But now plans have changed, we've got time booked off work and we are heading up for the afternoon and evening, planning on making a proper day of it.  Why?  Well I've found out that a really great rum is going to be there and it just cries out for us to come and pay our respects.  A mobile Rum Shack promoting Chairman’s Reserve - the golden rum from St Lucia will be touring the UK this summer starting with the Taste Festival in London’s Regent Park (18-21 June 2009) and then going all over the country.  Top news and something the UK rum fans should definitely keep an eye out for.

Pauline wrote about XM Royal the other day and how we picked up our first bottle at the Whisky Exchange, after a day exploring Vinopolis and the Rum Experience.  Well, we actually came away from there with two bottles - one was XM, the other was Chairman's Reserve.  It didn't last long in our house - like so many of the lovely rums we enjoy, the bottom of the bottle is found surprising quickly - which is always a shame.

So Chairman's Reserve is a brand that is reasonably familiar to me.  It was rum number 5 on Paul's list of 11 at rum club, and whilst I didn't mention it in my piece about the night; I do recall quite a bit about it.  Paul told us that St. Lucia Distillers are really quite progressive and use different types of stills and a number of different yeasts to allow them the opportunity to create a wide range of expressions, which can then be further blended.  The rumour was that Chairman's Reserve was created with the sole aim of having great rum that could be drunk alongside beer at a cricket match.  It was that detail that helped keep it in mind - what a great task to set to your master blender!  I'm a big cricket fan and am very much enjoying the ICC Twenty 20 tournament which is running right now.  Drinking nothing but rum would be tough on a long day, beer is always going feature - aiming to make sure they work together: inspired!

Emporia Brands are the lucky UK partner to St. Lucia Distillers.  Based upon the super response to my request for a little info - I think St. Lucia Distillers are going to have their baby in a safe pair of hands.  I got an extremely detailed response and I'm only sorry I can't fit all of it in the piece - I'm sure that James Rackham the Chairman of Emporia or Geoffrey Kelly at Euro Strategies (PR) would be as keen to talk rum to anyone interested.  They have recently kicked off a Chairman's XI bar campaign, in which they are looking to put together an elite team of eleven top bartenders to champion Chairman's Reserve in the UK.  These lucky eleven will become brand heroes and travel to St. Lucia to learn all about it firsthand.  On their return to the UK, they will look to form their own Chairman's XI and so the word will spread.

There is also some good news for the average man in the street.  Chairman's Reserve is now available in Waitrose (£16.99), rather than just the specialist outlets.  I reckon this is fantastic - availability is key in my mind to spreading the good word!  Hopefully sales will be good, but I can't help but feel that while most of the brand education goes to bartenders - the public won't have an opportunity to learn about it.  So just what will bring the punters flooding through the doors of Waitrose, eager to strip the shelves bear of quality rum?  Well perhaps the Rum Shack campaign might just start things off - being in Regents Park for four days is bound to catch the eye and make more than a few people think about it.

There is of course the True Rum education program I've alluded to in previous pieces.  The West Indies Rum and Spirit Producers Association (WIRSPA) are running an educational program across large parts of Europe - all the countries that have historical connections to the Caribbean.  I'd say it would certainly be worth going to look at their website.  There is an awful lot of 'Under Construction' areas, which makes it look a bit like some the building sites I've seen on my travels in the Caribbean.  There is a feeling of 'soon come', which I suppose is all part of the Caribbean image...  Looks extremely pretty though!  Poster campaigns on the London underground and adverts in certain lifestyle magazines will also help.  Countrywide tastings, if advertised properly will certainly go a long way.

Something to look out for is the 'Authentic Caribbean Rum', True Rum seal (the round image shown on the Rum Shack poster image below).  Apparently Chairman's Reserve was the first rum to carry this marque.  It's designed to ensure that the rum carrying the marque is manufactured to certain standards and doesn't use misleading imagery etc.  It's not a large group of companies that are operating under these 'rules' and it's fair to say that most haven't got on board yet, but it is a good start.

I'd certainly recommend spending a moment looking the Emporia Brands website, specifically the St. Lucia Distillers section (you can find the link below), but while I have your attention, I'd like to share the following with you, which has been taken from their site: 'Chairman's Reserve is a blend of double distilled pot still and continuous still rums. the pot still richness comes through on the nose along with juicy fruits and a hint of honey. The palate is medium bodied with a soft feel, a hint of vanilla and spices.'  Having read that can, you tell me you don't want to get out and try some?  If you want to find out more about St. Lucian Distillers and you have a bit of time to spare, then check out their website - there is a great deal of information there, so it might take you a while to read through it all.

So hopefully, this Thursday the sun will shine and Taste of London will be as interesting as I imagine it to be.  There does seem to be a lot about booze in general there, which ticks quite a few boxes in my book!  Depending upon what we find out, we might well follow this piece up.

If you're on Facebook you will of heard that usernames have just been introduced, so to commemorate this you can look Pauline and I up as follows - http://www.facebook.com/peter.holland and http://www.facebook.com/pauline.holland.  You can also look to join the St. Lucia Distillers group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=84723193659 - worth doing as the Rum Shack is due to visit other parts of the UK - the details of which will be listed on the group page.

http://www.saintluciarums.com/ - St. Lucia Distillers website

http://www.emporiabrands.com/brochure/index.html   /   http://www.emporiabrands.com/brochure/spiritpages/stlucia.htm

http://truerum.co.uk - the WIRSPA project.

http://www.tastefestivals.com/london/ - 18th to 21st June, Regents Park

http://www.chasedistillery.co.uk - for the vodka fans out there.

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