Bacardi 1873

Product of: Puerto Rico

See more Caribbean Molasses 3+ year rums

View 1 cocktails with Blended & aged 3-5yo med-bodied molasses rum

Distilled at Bacardi's San Juan Cathedral of Rum, Bacardi 1837 is a light bodied blend of rums aged up to four years and available primarily in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico. It was originally made to commemorate those assonated during the Virginius Affair at the end of 1873.

The Virginius Affair was a 1870s diplomatic dispute between the USA, the UK and Spain, then in control of Cuba. The Virginius was a steel ship originally constructed for the Confederate Navy at a Scottish shipyard on the Clyde in 1864 for blockade running. In 1870 the ship was sold to an American, John F. Patterson, who registered her at the New York Custom House, but it later transpired that Patterson was acting for a group of Cuban insurgents who falsely flew the American flag to enjoy U.S. Navy protection while delivering contraband to Cubans fighting the insurrection against the Spanish. The Spanish considered the Virginius a pirate ship.

On 31st October 1873, the Virginius was captured off Morant Bay, Jamaica, by the Spanish ship Tornado and taken to Santiago de Cuba where its crew of 52 (chiefly Americans and Britons) and 103 passengers (mostly Cubans) were put before a summary court-martial. The Spanish executed 53 of the crew and passengers as pirates. The intervention of the British ship HMS Niobe and her captain, Sir Lambton Loraine, prevented further deaths.

War appeared imminent between Spain and the U.S. but on 8th December 1873, the Spanish government agreed to surrender the Virginius and deliver the surviving crew and passengers to an American warship at Santiago.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 09/04/2012

Appearance:

Clear, pale golden.

Aroma:

Subdued fresh green apple skin, fudge and muscovado sugar nose with mocha coffee, nutty nubuck leather, lanolin and window putty.

Taste:

Initial burst of green apple skin immediately turns woody (bamboo) and nutty with blue cheese and mushroom soup.

Aftertaste:

Dry bamboo, macadamia nut finish with faint blue cheese and mushroom, which I find a loveable signature of Bacardi rums.