Distillery Botanica Launches Premium Dark Rum and Barrel Room Tastings

After almost 20 years distilling flawless award-winning gins, Distillery Botanica has veered over to the dark side and aged a sublime small-batch dark rum in a barrel room beneath the Central Coast distillery.

Almost three years in the making, the first release of Terrigal Rum Co premium dark rum is a limited-edition batch called ‘Luscious’. As the name suggests, it’s a luscious spirit, with a rich honeyed texture and notes of baked dessert spice, caramel, dried fruit and a hint of ginger. After being aged in a combination of barrels including new medium toast American oak, Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey, and 60-year-old brandy, it has a long-lasting complex of savoury fine tannins, and an aroma of honey, peach, cinnamon, hazelnut, allspice, marmalade and toffee, creating exquisite flavours, a velvety texture and all-round lusciousness.

The new premium rum is the dark sibling of the original white Terrigal Rum Co spirit, first produced at the distillery in 2023, and available alongside a range of other clear spirits including craft gins and a vodka, as well as exquisite liqueurs.

In deciding to make a dark rum, Distillery Botanica Master Distiller Philip Moore said he wanted to be at the vanguard of a premium Australian product that could spark a revolution similar to the gin renaissance in recent years.

“While gin will always be our forte, we can sense a rum revolution brewing and wanted to be at the forefront of the local craft rum scene, just as we were for gin back in the ‘00s, when we were one of the first commercial small-scale distilleries in Australia,” Philip said.

“Our uniquely Australian dark rum has a luxurious, velvety complex of dried tropical fruit, toasted oaks and bakery spices, with whispers of ginger, marmalade, toffee, brandy and caramel. The first batch of our Terrigal Rum Co premium dark rum, ‘Luscious’, is an approachable, enjoyable crowd-pleaser, best enjoyed neat or on the rocks, with a wedge of aged cheese, some chocolate or gingerbread. It’s simply sublime.

“Creating this dark rum has been a labour of love and I’ve enjoyed crafting the spirit from scratch with a delicious Australian molasses and following the journey of the rum over the past three years in our purpose-built barrel room. I’m delighted with the result and can’t wait to share each new release with visitors to the distillery.”

Priced at $130, Terrigal Rum Co premium dark rum is available in a rare rectangular bottle with a copper embossed label befitting the rich bronze spirit inside and an elegant silhouette of a native heron inspired by local birds which frequent the distillery’s botanical gardens to feast on frogs.

The Australian rum has been produced with subtropical molasses from the Clarence River Valley and a variety of wine yeasts from France, Italy and Australia, distilled in a hybrid copper still, and aged in multiple barrels including American white oak, second-fill bourbon and 60-year-old brandy, to create diverse and delicious flavours.

Following the first limited-edition ‘Luscious’ release, the distillery is launching ‘The French Connection’ blend aged in French oak barrels, contributing to a rich profile of dried fruit, sweet toffee, and marmalade, and ‘Raisin’ Toast’, aged in new American white oak barrels with medium toast plus creating an aroma of toasted raisin bread, complete with mouth-watering notes of fruit and spice.

The first three batches are now available to taste and purchase at the Erina distillery, with special rum experiences on offer including a tour and tasting in the barrel room with the Master Distiller, and a rum tasting with food pairings featuring handmade chocolate from Luka Chocolates, an aged cheese from Little Creek Cheese, and rum-glazed gingerbread by Adri’s Gingerbread – all specially crafted on the Central Coast to complement the new rum.

In addition to the new rum experiences, Distillery Botanica offers distillery door tastings which include the current rum release, cocktail classes, distillery and garden tours, distil your own botanical gin and vodka workshops with ingredients hand-picked from the garden before being distilled in individual two-litre copper stills, and tasting paddles featuring three seasonal half-sized spirits or liqueurs paired with complimentary garnishes and tasting notes.

Distillery Botanica first opened its doors in 2007 as the sixteenth commercial small-scale distillery in Australia. Created by distiller Philip Moore, Distillery Botanica produces a range of gins and liqueurs including the acclaimed Moore’s Dry Gin – the first Australian gin to ever win Gold at the prestigious London International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) in 2017, Moore’s Blood Orange Gin amongst other gin variants, as well as two-time IWSC gold medal winning Lemon Myrtle Liqueur, Raspberry Liqueur, Vodka, and Terrigal Rum. New to the range is Moore’s Pearl Crush Gin, Triple Sec Valencia liqueur, Koko Noir chocolate liqueur, and Terrigal Rum Co premium dark rum.

Distillery Botanica is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 4pm.

For more information visit www.distillerybotanica.com