Buy J. Gow

J. Gow comes from the VS Distillers operation on Orkney, part of a small wave of Scottish rum producers alongside the likes of Ninefold and Sugar House. The name nods to John Gow, a local pirate, and the branding leans into that maritime, Northern-island identity rather than pretending to be Caribbean.

Production centres on molasses fermented and distilled in pot stills, with the Wild Yeast Series pushing into open and unusual ferments, including a Kveik batch that one reviewer flagged as extremely funky and unaged. Ageing happens in the Orkney climate, so even a three-year rum like Revenge shows real cask interaction, drawing bourbon-cask vanilla and, some say, a whisky-like edge.

The range is wide for a young distillery. Culverin is the pure white, praised as a Daiquiri and Dark ’n’ Stormy base and reasonable value. Spiced Rum is the divisive one, heavy on cinnamon and gingerbread. Revenge and the standard J. Gow are the ester-forward workhorses. Fading Light and Fading Light XO lean peaty, salty and tarry, closer to a young Islay dram, while Hidden Depths and the Wild Yeast Moscatel and NMO bottlings show what the distillate does with more time and specific casks.

Flavours run from honey, mango and acetone to molasses, cloves, sea salt and smoke. These are not smooth crowd-pleasers; they reward drinkers who like Jamaican funk and pot still bite.

Most people drink the aged expressions neat, over a single ice cube with time to breathe. The white and spiced versions work better in cocktails than in a glass on their own.