Market Row Botanical Rum, created in Brixton, has won its second worldwide award in less than 18 months.
Launched in October 2020, it was awarded a silver medal in this year’s International Wine & Spirits Competition. (IWSC).
“IWSC medals are globally recognised as a mark of outstanding quality, signalling winning spirits as one of the best in the world,” said Christelle Guibert, CEO Fine Wines & Spirits at the IWSC.
Awarded 90 points, Market Row botanical rum was described by the judging panel as: “Funky, round and complex nose. On the palate, there is some heat. Well-integrated with a meaty taste, and subtle on the botanicals. Unique.”
Hand-crafted above Market Row, the rum is a blend of pot still rums from five historic and award-winning distilleries in Jamaica, The Dominican Republic and Barbados.
It is then infused with Kenyan black tea, Nigerian hibiscus and South Asian red rose petals – interesting and unique botanicals inspired by Brixton Market and Market Row.
“This award comes on the back of a successful year for Market Row Botanical Rum, which has also seen us secure a listing with Fortnum & Mason [Grocers to the royal family, founded in 1707] and launch for the first time abroad,” said Patrick Venning, co-founder of the Brixton Distillery Company.
“We’re thrilled to now have two silver international competition medals under our belt, which we figure isn’t bad going for a nearly 18-month-old micro distillery.”
Only seven months after launching, Market Row Botanical Rum was awarded a silver medal in another global competition – the International Spirits Challenge 2021, which receives 1,800 entries from nearly 70 countries worldwide.
Market Row says its botanical rum’s handpicked botanicals are subtle on the nose and palate and become much more prominent in a mixed drink or cocktail, “adding a completely unique flavour”.
The botanicals provide “subtle, floral and grassy notes that support and enhance the natural flavours of the rum and allow the more subtle, woody notes of the base rums to shine through.”
The rum has less sugar than most, offers aromas of dark chocolate and oak, and is “smooth and warming, with a caramelised banana sweetness and a dry, vanilla finish”.
It costs £34 a bottle and can be obtained online (brixtondistillery.com) and in select London bars and restaurants.
The Market Row distillery houses a 100-litre bespoke copper and steel pot still (above). Its product is hand-bottled under the guidance of master distiller Matt Servini.
