How do you read a rum label?

Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires on every label the name of the food, the net quantity, the alcoholic strength by volume, the allergens, and the name and address of the responsible operator.

Article 9, paragraph 1 of that regulation lists the mandatory particulars. For drinks with more than 1.2% vol alcohol, two of those points fall away: article 16, paragraph 4 makes the ingredients list and the nutrition declaration not mandatory. The allergen declaration does remain.

An age limit is not one of the mandatory particulars. ’t Bockje does not sell alcohol to persons under 18.

Annex I, category 1 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 requires rum to be distilled from fermented molasses or syrup from cane sugar manufacture, or from fermented sugar cane juice, to below 96% vol.

The minimum alcoholic strength of rum is 37.5% vol. Adding alcohol is not allowed, whether diluted or undiluted, and rum may not be flavoured. Caramel is the only permitted colouring and may only be used to adjust the colour.

If sugar cane is not the base, the word rum may not appear on the bottle as the legal designation. The legal designation is therefore the first line on the label that fixes anything: only after that come the names and additions the producer chooses.

Rum may contain at most 20 grams of sweetening products per liter, expressed as invert sugar, and only to round off the finish.

That limit is in Annex I, category 1 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787. Because Article 16(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 does not make an ingredient list mandatory for drinks above 1.2% vol, an added sweetener does not need to be mentioned on the label.

A rum that tastes sweeter than you expect therefore need not have an error on the label. Anyone who wants to know whether sugar was added cannot find out from the label alone and has to ask the producer.

For whisky, Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 requires at least three years of maturation in wooden casks of at most 700 litres; for rum the same annex requires no maturation period at all.

If a bottle does state an age, Article 13(6) of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 applies: the age must refer to the youngest alcoholic component of the drink, and the maturation must have taken place under the tax supervision of a Member State or under supervision with equivalent guarantees. A number that appears on the bottle as an age therefore belongs to the youngest rum in the bottle.

The difference from whisky lies in the lower limit, not in the age rule. A whisky without an age statement is at least three years old, a rum without an age statement can be any age. In Bathmen there are 77 rums with an age statement on the label, from 33 brands from 26 countries. The whole rum shelf has 429 items from 112 brands from 40 countries, so with well over eight in ten rums the label says nothing about the maturation period.

Añejo, reserva, extra old, solera and premium are not in Annex I, category 1 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 and therefore have no defined meaning there.

In that category there are only two designations with conditions: traditionnel or tradicional, and agricole. For traditionnel it applies that the rum is distilled at less than 90% vol from raw materials that come entirely from the production place, that it contains at least 225 grams of volatile substances per hectolitre of 100% vol alcohol, and that it is not sweetened. Both designations may only be used with a registered geographical indication.

Numbers fall into the same group as soon as they do not indicate an age. A figure in a brand name, a number belonging to a cask programme or a bottling series, or a Roman numeral on the label is not a maturation period and is not tied to any term.

Origin rules fill in what the EU leaves open: the French appellation d’origine contrôlée Rhum de la Martinique, recognised in 1996, requires at least three years of maturation in oak for rhum vieux.

The same appellation requires at least twelve months in wood for rhum élevé sous bois, and prescribes that rhum vieux is bottled on Martinique. The Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité maintains these requirements.

At European level regulation (EU) 2019/787 ties the word agricole to origin: that designation may only be used with a geographical indication from a French overseas department or from the autonomous region of Madeira, and only for rum distilled exclusively from fermented sugarcane juice. You therefore read a rum label in two layers: first the European requirements, then the rules of the area of origin.