Rating:
Sea Wynde
www.castlebrandsinc.com

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from Internet Wines and Spirits

If for nothing else, Sea Wynde rum distinguishes itself with one of the cleverest ways of making a boring, basic wine-type bottle interesting. The metal label is just awsome – like a piece of medieval armor for some sort of dark-ages pirate. But happily, this is hardly the only thing distinctive about this rum.

Sea Wynde is actually quite deceptive – it’s soft amber color give the appearance of a gentle spirit (hey, a double meaning!), but one pop of the cork and a quick sniff later clearly conveys this rum to be anything but. It smells of a stark contrast to itself, almost like a dual personality. On the one hand, the overt sweetness of liquour-like rums is present (such as is common amongst east indian rums, or Ron Zacapa), while there is also a strong sense of pepper. Pepperiness and Sweetness are both common amongst rums, but I generally consider them to be opposite ends of the spectrum, and rarely have I encountered them so overtly present in the same bottle.

The smell of Sea Wynde is an accurate representation of its taste, being at once syrupy sweet yet brutally peppered. Certainly an odd combination, but an intriguing one. For all that it burns across the tongue, it carries little heat down the throat – instead lending a light coolness in the upper chest. As to subtleties, any that may be present are buried beneath the stark complexity of the primary dual personalities in this rum.

A fine and fascinating rum – and even if you find you don’t like it, the bottle will surely be an eye-catcher amongst any rum collection!