I’m working on a serie of interviews I would like to conduct with personnalities of the rum world, starting with some independent bottlers. The format would be inspired from Rumporter, with one main difference: YOU participate as well!
I’d like to gather the questions you might have for each of them or even comments and feedback on the recent (or not-so-recent) bottlings.
Our first interview will take place on the 28th of July with Nicolas from Vagabond Spirits! Please share your questions and feedback in the comments, the interview will then be published on the RumX blog.
For the next interviews, I’ll write a post to gather questions and comments in advance.
I am very curious how long it takes (average) to pick the right barrel or if it’s vice versa and they are just trying for a period and find a good barrel more or less by accident
second similar question, do they find a barrel but they decide to wait for a period till they bottle it?
Wie viel sind die Abfüller von den Brokern abhängig? Werden Fässer vorgeben?
Wie stehen die Abfüller dazu, das in den letzten Jahren oft alle IBs zur gleichen Zeit das gleiche Mark abgefüllt haben? Beispiel: <>H 2014, TDL 2003.
wie viele Fässer lagern die IBs selber oder wird grundsätzlich sofort abgefüllt?
Wird es schwieriger die Flaschen an den Mann zu kriegen? Was ist die Alternative? 20cl Flaschen z.b.?
Ist das Image und das Premium Gefühl bei einer Abfüllung bald wichtiger als der Rum, da es einfach immer weniger Fässer gibt, die sich nur durch die reine Qualität verkaufen lassen?
Was wird an Preis/Leistung in Zukunft noch möglich sein… Kann man sich Qualität in Zukunft überhaupt noch leisten?
War mir auf Englisch jetzt zu langwierig. Denke die automatische Übersetzung kriegt das hin.
Thanks for your questions, could you please develop these points ?
How dependent are the bottlers on the brokers? Are casks specified? → I’m not sure what you mean by “are casks specified”, but I guess there is a different scenarios whether the IB wants to bottle a single cask vs let’s say Planteray getting it’s casks from TDL to produce its 3 stars.
Will the image and premium feel of a bottling soon be more important than the rum itself, since there are simply fewer and fewer casks that can be sold solely on the basis of quality? → what do you mean exactly by the fact that “there are fewer casks that can be sold solely on the basis of quality”?
The question could also be, how is the communication between bottler and the Broker who hast the casks? How much do the brokers steer the bottlings because of what they offer?
The other question is more of a open question, about what they market for the bottlers will look like in the future. Can i just bottle stuff and look what will happen or does it need more marketing and a story to tell if i want to be sure that people buy it. The feeling of premium or something special.
Hi @Florent_Apl, and thank you for letting us participate
My questions would be:
As Nicolas, much to our delight, doesn’t shy away from experimentation with casks and different aging, sometimes under some quite unheard of conditions… (I am talking about you “Off Road Series” )
Are there any limits for you, what you are willing to try out? Would you do a Creme Brûlée - Ribeye - Applejuice infusion with a hint of Dead Cat and an Aceto - Peppermint finish, as long as the overall result is interesting and working?
And all jokes aside, what is your process with the more exotic finishes and methods (much like asking Mozart “what is your process when writing music”)?
What stages do you go through during that?
When something doesn’t go in the direction you planned, what methods do you use to compensate or even salvage?
Have you had to scratch an entire experiment before, because it didn’t align with what you had in your head?
What would be a bottling, you always wished you could do sometime?
I just finished the interview with Vagabond Spirits, it lasted a whole 3h!
Thank you @w00tAN , @MrRumantic and @ander_s for your questions, I’ll need to translate all the questions and answers to English, check the photos, and when the article will be available I’ll let your know
)