Wildjac Cherry Wood Spiced Rum
Buy Widljac Cherry Rum on Amazon!
Back in October we featured a bottle of Wildjac's Honey Spiced Rum, made with Worcestershire honey and English coriander. If you had received that box then you may well have read the article on Wildjac and all the great work they’re doing for the environment, by producing delicious spirits! If not though don’t worry, we’ll be putting that on our website in the coming weeks.
For now, let’s catch up with Chris Sadler, Founder of Wildjac to find out more about their new release and what other exciting stuff they’ve been up to.
Hi Chris! Great to catch up! Let’s start from the beginning, can
you give us a brief overview of Wildjac, how it all got started, the heart of the business and your products.
There is actually a long-standing history of distilling in the family!
The Sadler family have been brewers and distillers for over 150 years and after moving on from our successful brewery of 15 years it was time to investigate our other hereditary talents.
We saw an exciting opportunity to bring a range of spirits to the market which give back, not only to the community but also to the Wild. We were inspired by the Wyre Forest which the distillery sits right on the edge of, and which used to be known as the ‘Wildwood’.
With a range of Gins, Rums, Citrus Vodka and a Botanical non-alcoholic spirit, we use locally foraged Douglas Fir and Worcestershire Honey in the spirits as well as herbs grown in our garden like lemon balm and lemon thyme. The expansion of our range has also allowed us to work with local organic fruit farmers, Augernick, to bring seasonal variations such as our Cherry Wood rum.
Some readers may be familiar with you from our previous piece in October's issue. Let's catch up on a bit of it to get people up to speed. Sustainability is at the core of your business, can you tell us a little about how you incorporate this into what you do?
The approach we have is threefold, based on product, planet and people.
Product - We use 100% post-consumer recycled glass, recycled labels and FSC stoppers for our bottles and also use recycled and recyclable cardboard packaging. We chose DPD as our distribution partner because of their commitment to carbon reduction and strong CSR policies. We also make, bottle and store our product in house cutting the amount of journeys our product makes before it reaches the customer.
Planet - We also support local and national non-profits which are underpinned by 1% for the planet, an organisation which certifies the donations from companies to these non-profits.
We have chosen both local and national projects so that we can make a difference at every level. We also support these with our time volunteering for their projects and campaigns and by identifying ways that we can help each other.
People - Finally we give away a pack of seed sticks with every full-size bottle of our spirits. Not only is this good for increasing wildflower habitats for bees and insects, brightens up a garden with useful plants but it also supports strong evidence on the benefits of growing plants and flowers for mindfulness and stress relief.
We are a progressive distillery with Plastic Free Certification and B-Corp pending assessment with a view to achieve certification status within the next year.
The previous rum featured was your Honey Spiced Rum. I was a big fan of this one, I have to say. Can you give a brief overview of this for those who haven't tried it?
Our honey spiced rum is a barrel aged, spiced rum infused with Worcestershire honey and English coriander. Perfect for sipping or blending to upgrade any rum cocktail.
And now you've realised a new rum, which sounds beautiful. Can you tell us about that? What inspired it? How you make it?
Rum is such an exciting and developing category within the drinks industry and the expansion into aged rums that are enhanced with fruits or herbs is a greatly under-represented area of the category. When researching and sourcing our Rums in the Caribbean we noticed that a lot of rum is mixed with coke and we wanted a flavour that was strong enough to stand on its own as a sipping rum as well as blend well with the popular mixers.
As a homegrown distillery we want to embrace local ingredients as much as possible so create our rum with a base of Barbadian Foursquare rum which we age over cherry wood and blend with spices and our own cherry distillate.
What does it taste like. Can you give us tasting notes please?
Our smooth rum hits with rich and sticky cherry fruit which leads to a rounded vanilla oak finish.
Barrel aged rum from Barbados and south America, aged with cherry wood, fruit and spices. Nose: Warm oak and cherry Palate: Cherry spice and orange Finish : Vanilla and Sweet cherry.
If people like it, how do they go about finding more of it?
It is currently available on our website and at local independent stockists.
Anything else exciting coming up that you'd like to share?
We are excited to be working to produce some seasonal harvest specials, each will be on a limited release and showcase a season. We currently have 2021
Harvest local rhubarb ageing with Antiguan white rum, ready for a very special spring release.
Much like the monthly specials in the beer world, this keeps our range fresh and relevant as well as being a good way to gauge our customers favourite flavours.
Fantastic stuff! Thanks ever so much Chris for such an interesting and informed interview! I sure am looking forward to trying that rum now! I’m sure everyone is going to love it!
