Style: Pot still rum
Age: 17 years
Proof: 98 (49% ABV)
Region: Jamaica

Ask any rum or tropical cocktail nerd what their unobtainable “holy grail” bottle is and the answer is almost guaranteed to be the 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephew. This long-extinct Jamaican rum was the one that Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron first used in his most famous creation, the mai tai. Production of this rum ceased sometime in the 1940s and Trader Vic pivoted to using a 15-year Wray & Nephew. When the 15-year ran out, the only suitable replacement was a blend of rum from Martinique and Jamaican pot still rum, a formula that is the blueprint most bartenders follow for the mai tai to this day.

So when eagle-eyed rum fanatics found the TTB filing for the Appleton Estate 17 Legend, the buzz was palpable. To engineer this resurrection of the J. Wray & Nephew 17, Master Blender Joy Spence went back through the Appleton Estate archives, found the original recipe, and painstakingly recreated all of the original pot-distilled marques that made up the original and aged them for a full 17 years. Does this rum accurately reflect the flavor profile of the original Wray & Nephew 17? It’s difficult to know for sure, but one thing is certain – this is a special rum.

Tasting notes

It’s immediately apparent that this rum is completely different than the rest of Appleton Estate’s portfolio. It’s much lighter in color, closer to a golden amber than the dark mahogany of the brand’s similarly aged rums. On the nose, vanilla, and caramel mingle with the classic funk that Jamaican pot still rums are known for – think overripe ripe tropical fruit.

The flavor of this rum is rich and reminiscent of caramelized peach and banana along with citrus, and a hint of smoky nutmeg and clove. The finish is long, smooth almost like mango juice, and carries the notes of orange peel and baking spice the whole way.

Final thoughts

It’s impossible for most of us to know whether or not this tastes exactly like the original J. Wray & Nephew 17 that Trader Vic used to make the first mai tai back in 1944. What we do know is that Joy Spence and the team at Appleton Estate went to great lengths to recreate it and that this rum is absolutely delicious. It has all of the high-ester funk that one would expect from a traditional Jamaican pot still rum, but the 17 years that this rum spent in barrels softens any potential rough edges.

And yes, the Appleton Estate 17 Legend does indeed make an exquisite mai tai.