Vintage rum Virgin Islands Bottled for Liquor & Party Boutique Milwaukee

[dancywalden@mac.com]

Hello all! I hope you can help before we lose our patience and open this up. We acquired a bottle of rum from an estate sale but we need to know something about it before we open it. On the label is "Imported Boutique Rum, 80 Proof, Bottled for Mr H's Liquor & Party Boutique Milwaukee Wis, Distilled in the Virgin Islands". The label has an illustration of a ship next to the shore with palm trees & barrels, with mountains in the distance. On the back is an insignia "Est 1933", then "Imported Rum", then a list of recipes. After that is a gold ribbon with this printed on it "Keeps you in the best of spirits", Rum 80 Proof, Imported and Bottled by Ambur Distilled Products, Inc, Milwaukee Wisconsin."

The Internal Revenue tax stamp is on the bottle cap - it is a long red stamp with "US Internal Revenue Distilled Spirits Tax Paid" No date, or dollar amount. Also there is a Wisconsin tax stamp.

We have tried to find info through the Wis Dept of Revenue with not much luck. If you have any ideas to help us out, we would greatly appreciate it.

There is no info on Ambur Distilled Products - on the web anyway.

Mainly we want to know approx when this was bottled, and from what distillery, and whether we should open and test it, or keep it, or sell it to the highest bidder...We don't want to be dumb and slurp down a valuable bottle of rum like it was Bacardi or something.

My husband thinks because it is not clear, that it may have gone bad. I did some homework on this site and think that it is supposed to be a bit tinted. The color is just slightly yellowish.

Maybe we're making too big a deal out of it. Let us know what you think. If you want a photo of the bottle, I can do that...

I love this website!!!

Thanks!
Martha & Tony

[Edward Hamilton]

Without knowing anymore than you do about this bottle of rum, my thought is that this was a private label rum probably distilled by what is now the Cruzan rum distillery sometime after WWII. My guess is that it isn't a bottle of the proverbial best rum in the world but it shouldn't be the worst either. If the bottle is sealed with a cork the contents have probably evaporated at least a little. If there is a screw cap the rum probably hasn't changed much since it was bottled.

Whether you sell it or drink it is up to you, but I don't think Christie's auction house is going to contact you with a million dollar offer.