Salon du Rhum Spa 2026

[crazyforgoodbooze]

If I had known a bit earlier, I would have been happy to accept it. Unfortunately, it’s not feasible on such short notice. What a shame!
Wishing you continued recovery!

[FoAx]

Let’s go

[FoAx]

[Oliver]

Reminder: At 4 PM, we’ll have our Mexico rum at the Swell de Spirits stand

Can’t wait to hear what you think!

[FoAx]

[FoAx]

[FoAx]

[AndreaCillario]

[AndreaCillario]

[AndreaCillario]

[zabo]

Did Emile have nice things with him again

[FoAx]

Yes! Highlight for me was the Clarendon 91, very very nice

[mto75]

get well soon, Kevin!

[Jamdram]

[crazyforgoodbooze]

Eifnach already has more live content now than was seen on the entire WLP

[Quent187]

Salon du Rhum Spa: A Quick Sunday Recap

Hello everyone! Here is my quick recap from Spa yesterday.

Overall, I found it quite quiet in terms of attendance. Apparently, Saturday was much busier (as every year), but yesterday it was definitely sparsely populated. On the bright side, that meant we could fully enjoy the exhibitors and chat without having to elbow our way through the crowds!

The Highlights

• Collector Area (Thanks, @KevinDK !): Thanks to Kevin, we were able to enjoy two incredible tastings at the Collector Area.

  • The first featured “oldies”, rums from the 1920s to the 1980s hailing from Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Cuba, and Demerara. It was a fascinating experience, with the Martinique rums really standing out in the lineup.
    

    

  • The second featured special commemorative bottlings of the 10-year history of the Salon du Rhum.
    (Thank you so much for the opportunity, Kevin, and sorry again that you couldn’t be there!)

• Hampden & Velier: We had a wonderful, in-depth conversation with Peppie Grant about all things Hampden, alongside Daniele Biondi from Velier, and tasted through their lineup. They even let us try two “suitcase rums”: an unreleased VRW 2006 that was simply magical (though unfortunately won’t be released), and a mind-blowing experimental rum at 4,600 esters.
  

  

• Whisky Jury: A major highlight of the day. They gave us a sneak peek at several upcoming bottlings that show incredible promise, including :

  • A Savanna 2019 GA that has been maturing in a sherry cask for a year.

  • A bottled Mhoba set for release in early 2027.
    

    

  • A Clarendon MM 2000 released exclusively for the festival (limited to just 48 bottles, already offered as a split by @SaibotZtar yesterday).

  • Their REV 94, releasing soon for their 7th anniversary, which is also exceptionally well made.
    

    

• Swell: Really loved their Clarendon 96, which was bottled specifically for the Facebook group (and arriving soon with Rob Bauer).
  Also the RumX bottling that is a real bomb
  

  

• Savanna: Nice pours overall, though nothing that became a personal favorite. However, I did find the AGA to be a great option in terms of price-to-quality ratio. Also, a special shoutout to the team: the welcome at the stand this year was wonderfully warm, which hasn’t always been the case in the past!
  

  

• Catawiki: Also had a great encounter with Emile from Catawiki, who treated us to some fantastic oldies.

To wrap it up, the day flew by in the blink of an eye! We barely scratched the surface and had to make tough choices, missing out on many other interesting exhibitors along the way. Still, everything we managed to taste was of exceptionally high quality, though honestly, the true highlight of the day was all the fantastic encounters and conversations.

That’s my hot take from the floor!
Cheers.
Q

[Leo]

Nice read. Next year i might come again. Maybe also on sundays.

[Thunderbird]

Thanks for the great report