Old Line Spirits Caribbean Rum Cask Single Malt Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C+

The backstory behind Baltimore’s Old Line Spirits is a classic of modern craft whiskey. Founders Arch Watkins and Mark McLaughlin set out in 2015 to make bourbon and rye. In the early stages of that project, they were approached by a small American malt distiller in Washington State, who offered to teach them the ropes as part of a deal to sell them his entire business. During that training, however, the pair decide they’d rather set up their distillery closer to home. In the meantime, they agreed to contract-distill their initial products at Middle West Spirits in Ohio. Since Old Line opened their Baltimore distillery in 2017, it is very likely (although not unconfirmed) that the Ohio-make whiskey is no longer part of their bottlings, and everything is now Baltimore-made.

Insofar as whiskey is concerned, Old Line is an American Single Malt distiller, but they also make rum, and in this part of their series of cask-finished whiskeys, they bring those two threads together. Their standard single malt is given a spell of secondary maturation in a cask previously used to age their own in-house rum. The result is then bottled at 100 proof. Old Line also flips that process around, and has a rum aged in their old single malt barrels.

The Whiskey
The pour has a bronzed, middle amber appearance. The nose came across to me pleasantly, as a cross between a stick of Juicy Fruit gum and a cinnamon stick. The flavor wasn’t as fruity, however, with its sweet side running more in the vein of a candy bar, with notes caramel and nougat, balanced by a current of wood spices. The latter rolls over into a tannic, spicy finish.

The Price
This bottle is listed with online retailers for approximately $50.