An unprecedented finish of the complex Planteray Barbados in an amaretto cask

Over the years, our passion for exceptional spirits has led us to visit numerous distilleries worldwide. Through these encounters, Maison Ferrand has forged friendships with incredible producers, with whom we share our mutual knowledge, expertise, and hunger for fine spirits. Naturally, this led to cask exchanges, giving birth to the "Barrel Swap" editions. For this new series of our Single Casks, Planteray and Adriatico - a 100% natural amaretto produced from Puglian almonds and enhanced with a touch of Adriatic Sea salt - have shared their expertise to offer you an even more surprising and innovative bottling.

For the Planteray team, choosing a Barbados rum from Stade's West Indies Rum Distillery was an obvious choice. This nuanced, fruity rum with delicious notes of coconut and vanilla proved to be the ideal candidate for an amaretto cask finish. The ageing process took around seven months imparting notes of almond and cherry pits, into our Planteray Barbados 2017 Rum, a blend of traditional pot and column stills twice matured (three years in tropical bourbon casks, then three years and five months in cognac casks in our Charente cellars).

"Finishing our Rum in an amaretto cask is a world first! It provides a beautiful smoothness and emphasizes the delicious aromas of our Planteray Barbados 2017" - Jonas Indesteege, Global Rum Prestige Collection Brand Manager
From left to right: Fannie Thibaud (Creation & Experimentation @ Maison Ferrand), Carolina Daneu (International Brand Manager @ Adriatico), Thomas Benoit and Jean-Robert Bellanger (Co-Founders @ Adriatico), and Jonas Indesteege (Global Rum Prestige Collection Brand Manager @ Maison Ferrand) in the cellars of Planteray Rum.

Planteray and Adriatico, a shared philosophy in the service of taste

For us, collaborating with Adriatico was a natural move, as both independent, family-owned houses share the same vision of excellence and continuous innovation. This is why, in addition to our delicious Planteray Barbados 2017 Adriatico Amaretto cask, you can also discover Adriatico Planteray Fiji Islands Rum cask. Indeed, Adriatico's founders, besides their permanent craft amaretto, will continue to offer an annual limited-edition amaretto finished in spirits casks.

This story started when the Adriatico team first visited us in Charentes and tasted many of our rums to identify the ideal Planteray cask for maturing their delicate almond liqueur. Fiji quickly became the unanimous choice for the terroir. Since Adriatico was already a sipping amaretto, the goal was to reach a new level by offering reinforcement and new complexity, as well as some "kick".

"Planteray Fiji Islands brings a powerful side to our Adriatico amaretto, with leather and spicy notes. It strengthens the liqueur and gives it lots of nose and body, for a fabulous finish and a rather different length on the palate compared to the classic product" - Thomas Benoît, Adriatico co-founder.

This unprecedented alliance between rum and amaretto has proved particularly fruitful and we just know it is going to inspire new creations in the future. Stay tuned!

NB: Proving that these "Barrel Swaps" push the boundaries of innovation, our Finnish friends at Kyrö have also just released a limited-edition Rye Whiskey finished in a Planteray cask placed in a sauna! With temperatures over 50°C inside the cask, we can truly call this "hot news"...