Plenty of whiskey hunters source and bottle fine hooch, but Rolling Fork imports fabulous rums instead.
From there, founders Turner Wathen and Jordan Morris finish these in Kentucky whiskey barrels and release them in their cask-strength glory. The only trouble is that until now, they were only available in limited markets. But last week, Rolling Fork announced a national rollout by entering 16 additional markets. Now almost anyone can taste what Wathen and Morris are pouring.
Wathen and Morris founded Rolling Fork in 2017 in the partners’ hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The duo realized that while fine whiskey was becoming increasingly scarce and its marketplace increasingly crowded, incredible, well-matured rums were available. So they began importing these from world-class distilleries like Four Square in Barbados or Angostura in Trinidad and built innovative portfolios around them. Rolling Fork’s rum program includes two core lineups: Lost Cask Collection and the Rolling Fork Series range in price between $85-$300. Rolling Fork’s inaugural release was Fortuitous Union, a blend of rum and whiskey retailing for $48. So let’s take a look and break down these collections.
Rolling Fork Series
The Rolling Fork Rum Series offers curated, ever-changing collections of single-cask, cask-strength rums finished in whiskey barrels that Wathen and Morris chose. The current lineup includes rums from Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Jamaica, aged between 5-14 years, and bottled in the 110-proof range.
Lost Cask Collection
The current lineup of Rolling Fork Lost Cask Collection comprises well-aged, single-cask rums from distilleries in Fiji, Guyana, and Barbados, bottled at their Indiana facility. These current expressions are aged between 17-and-23 years.
Fortuitous Union
Fortuitous Union is Rolling Fork’s inaugural product and this is batch #2. In this expression, a four-year-old rum base from Dominican Republic is spiked with Barbadian and Jamaican rums, then finished in ex-bourbon barrels. This mix is blended with 15 percent 6-year-old Indiana rye, hence the name, Fortuitous Union. $48.
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