The Shaldon, named for MHOBA's up-and-coming distiller and Assistant General Manager Shaldon Engelbrecht, is a jaw-dropping expression of sugarcane: an unaged overproof blend of two high-ester marques, Greaves High Ester GHE and GHE 1.5, from the distillery in Malalane, South Africa. The four-week fermentation uses 70% cane juice and 30% dunder from MHOBA's dunder pit — a cross between a dunder pit and a muck pit that also contains cane trash (the veneer, leaves, and stems removed before crushing) — with esters amplified via the Cousins Process, the technique used to create high-ester Jamaican rums by re-esterifying the lees from previous distillations. Distilled in custom high-reflux stainless and copper pot stills and rested two months before bottling; additive free and non-chill filtered.
Tasting Notes: Punchy aromas of ripe pear, Twizzlers, sea salt, sweet cream, marker, green olive, and a hint of cardboard precede a robust palate of strawberry jam, underripe pineapple, eggnog, jackfruit, nutmeg, almond-flour cake, mint, and caper berry.
ABV: 63% (126 Proof)
