Red Mill Rum, the revived Sydney harbourside distillery originally founded in 1933, will release Tom Thumb’s Reserve on 17 September – its most ambitious and premium expression to date. A rare 193-bottle release, Tom Thumb’s Reserve showcases the art of blending across an extraordinary collection of rare casks, available exclusively to Red Mill’s website for $300 per 700ml bottle.
“Tom Thumb’s Reserve is one of the most layered rums we’ve ever put into a bottle,” says David Fesq, founder and distiller of Red Mill, and great-grandson of original Red Mill founder George ‘Bunny’ Fesq. “It’s not just about the casks we’ve drawn on; it’s about the decision to bring two completely different barrel journeys together and let them become something neither could have been on its own. With only 193 bottles, this is as rare as it gets.”
The release is drawn from Red Mill’s White Bay barrel hall, home to more than 300 casks that once held everything from Sauternes and Cognac to Madeira, sherry and red and white wines from around the world — a collection that gives David and his team an unusually wide palette to compose from.
Distilled in 2021, Tom Thumb’s Reserve is built from two batches, each matured on a deliberately different path, before being brought together as a single, considered blend.
Batch One was composed with precision from the outset, individually aged across a mix of casks, then blended in exact proportion: 30% red Bordeaux, 30% Australian pinot noir, 20% Oloroso Sherry, 10% Mistelle sherry and 10% Cognac. This cépage-style blend then rested a further 20 months in small ex-port casks, allowing the composition to fully integrate.
Batch Two took an entirely different route: two years in charred American oak, followed by a decant into an ex-Sami Odi wine cask, gently toasted on-site at Red Mill in 2024.
The final act of craftsmanship came in bringing the two batches together. Rather than simply combining them, David rested the marriage for three months in a 1000-litre French oak foudre, a final maturation that allowed the two distinct journeys to round into one another, drawing out the blend’s fruit, spice and oak characters in a way neither batch could have achieved alone
The result is a rum that couldn’t have been made through a single cask or a single maturation path. It’s a rum built through the deliberate art of blending.
The name honours a piece of Red Mill’s own advertising history – the Red Mill character Tom Thumb. In 1946, Bill Fesq returned home from six years at war in the North Sea, where he had captained a motor torpedo boat, to find the family’s business barely surviving. With sailors and servicemen returning to Sydney’s pubs in droves, Red Mill set out to become the drink of the working harbour, launching a new campaign built around the idea of Sydney’s Harbour Rum. Margaret Fesq, an amateur artist, sketched a larrikin Aussie calling out across a crowded bar – It’s your shout! And it’s Red Mill Rum.
The image soon appeared on buses, trams, trains, pubs and billboards across the city. Over time, the anonymous character earned a nickname of his own: Tom Thumb.
Tom Thumb’s Reserve will be released on 17 September, priced at $300 per 700ml bottle, 42.5% ABV.
