If You Like Pappy and Weller, You’ll Love This Rum

The “Pappy of Rum” finished in wheated bourbon barrels? Yeah, this can’t miss.

Published June 25, 2024

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We’ve been hearing for years now how rum is going to be the next bourbon. How, any day now, the feverish hype that’s dominated the American whiskey space over the past two decades is going to transfer over to sugarcane-based spirits from the Caribbean.

Well, it hasn’t happened yet, and it probably isn’t going to. Rum is too diverse and too unregulated, and the worst rums are too widespread.

But, if there were a bottle of rum out there that could convince bourbon fanatics to cross over to the dark (rum) side, it’s the latest small-batch release from Indiana-based Rolling Fork.

Rolling Fork Wheated Cask Wonder

$99 at Rolling Fork

The Wheated “Pappy of Rum”

While there’s no rum riot akin to the ongoing bourbon boom, there is still a dedicated and passionate community of rum enthusiasts. And among them, one rum distillery has risen above the rest to earn the nickname “the Pappy of Rum.”

That distillery is the Foursquare Distillery in Barbados, which has become an industry darling under the direction of world-renowned rum expert Richard Seale.

Foursquare puts out rum under such labels as R.L. Seale’s, Doorly’s and Probitas, but the most acclaimed — and the one that’s earned the “Pappy” moniker — are the Exceptional Cask Selections sold under the distillery’s own eponymous label. These are rare offerings hand-selected by Seale himself that command a premium on the market.

Now, where does the aforementioned Rolling Fork fit in here? Rolling Fork is an independent blender and bottler. They import rums from around the world to their Indiana rickhouse, blend it to their liking and finish it in spent whiskey barrels to put their own unique, American twist on the international spirit.

rolling fork rum glass in a rickhouse — Indiana-based Rolling Fork’s claim to fame is adding whiskey cask finishes to premium rums from around the world.

The latest release from Rolling Fork is called Wheated Cask Wonder. It was made by taking four barrels of 8-year-old rum from Foursquare that was aged in bourbon barrels and aging it for another two years in casks that previously held 10-year-old wheated bourbon.

Wheated bourbon, of course, is the crème de la crème of the whiskey world, with Buffalo Trace Distillery‘s famed wheated mashbill forming the basis for some of the world’s most coveted whiskeys from the likes of Pappy Van Winkle and Weller.

Rolling Fork doesn’t say from which distillery it sourced its wheated bourbon barrels, but the brand does say the casks came from “one of Kentucky’s most iconic whiskey brands” in Frankfort. Frankfort just so happens to be the home of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Just sayin.’

So just to recap here: We’ve got bourbon-aged rum from the “Pappy” of rum distillers that’s then aged in spent wheated bourbon casks out of Frankfort that possibly could have contained actual Pappy, and the final product is ten years old. Additionally, this rum is small-batch, non-chill filtered, contains no additives (unlike whiskey, additives like sugar are common in rum) and is bottled at a cask strength of 114.9 proof.

If there were ever a rum that was going to suck in bourbon drinkers, this is it.

rolling fork rum label — Transparency is the sign of a good rum, and Rolling Fork’s label does not disappoint in that regard.

Rolling Fork The Wheated Cask Wonder

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a spirit bridge the gap between rum and whiskey as well as the Wheated Cask Wonder.

While I haven’t tasted it myself (yet), Rolling Fork provides some pretty detailed tasting notes. According to the bottler, the rum has a nose containing notes of orange peel, light seasoned oak, buttered pastry and caramel, while the palate is a full-bodied expression of vanilla, coconut and baking spice.

Just 900 bottles of The Wheated Cask Wonder have been produced, with a retail price of $99. And, since this is a rum, not a bourbon, you’ll probably be able to buy it at retail if you want to. Bottles are now available for preorder on Rolling Fork’s website.

Rolling Fork Wheated Cask Wonder

Sourced from Foursquare Distillery, AKA the “Pappy of Rum,” this eighty-year-old bourbon-aged rum was aged an additional two years in wheated bourbon casks from an “iconic” whiskey brand out of Frankfort, Kentucky.