The region’s burgeoning reputation for local produce takes another step forward as Alnwick Rum, one of the area’s historic and best-known drinks companies, launches another new rum as part of its growth plan.
White Knight is a white Guyanese rum that uses pure spring water from the Northumberland hills and is named after Harry Hotspur, Alnwick Castle’s famous knight, who features on the label and new branding.
White Knight will see its first launch, with free tastings, in the Food Hall at Fenwick department store in Newcastle on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 July. The company expects it to prove as popular as the Golden Spiced Rum launched at the end of last year which has boosted sales by 35%.
Paul Stephenson, General Manager said: “White Knight is a premium white rum which is full-bodied with a fruity note and a touch of butter toffee. It’s a great mixer that we are confident will be a big hit with today’s growing number of cocktail drinkers as well as rum connoisseurs.
“We are very proud of our Northumbrian heritage and use local ingredients wherever possible, including the Northumberland water, as purity and quality are very important to us. We are launching White Knight in our region at Fenwick in Newcastle and in our own Taste of Northumbria shop in Alnwick but expect sales to grow swiftly across the UK, abroad and online at www.alnwickrum.com.
“There is certainly a lot of competition in the drinks market at the moment but Alnwick Rum is doing well. We are confident that White Knight is a unique product, and a perfect summer drink, that will attract existing and new rum drinkers.”
The original Alnwick Rum was first made in the early 1900s to a secret recipe, lost for more than 20 years before being re-discovered and put back into production in 2003.
Alnwick Rum is part of the Harry Hotspur Group of companies that also includes the Lindisfarne Mead producer, recently featured as a drink ‘Going Up’ in the Sunday Times Style magazine’s column of that name, and Alnwick Brewery.
All three companies are expanding fast into new markets here and abroad, with a growing range of drinks and related food products from beers and ales, rums, various meads and fruit wines to cakes, fudge, biscuits and chocolates.