The Love of Bundy
Previously I was a beer & bourbon drinking man, then around the end of the last millennium while on a holiday to see Australia's Top-End, I stopped in to tour the famous Bundaberg Distilling Company. While in those tall store houses surrounded by Vats filled with aging rum, suddenly I became a rum drinker and could no longer drink bourbon.
While at the Brewery shop I learnt about this [at the time] gift-shop exclusive drink called "Royal Liqueur" it's a delicacy made with Bundy and some dark chocolate and goes down very nicely over ice at the end of an evening. I brought an entire case of it as I knew my mates back home would also love it and as it was only available in Bundaberg (the town) - it made sense to buy a lot of it.
When I returned to the [at the time] home in the Blue Mountains, I shared the drink with my friends; they liked it, but they didn't want to buy an entire bottle off me (tight-asses). So I kept the rest of the case and started to drink it myself - but you only drink a small amount even now and then on special occasions - so a single bottle actually lasts you a very long time.
Maybe a year or two later, Bundaberg Rum started selling the now sought after "Royal Liqueur" in retail stores throughout Australia... but it was different; it was a slightly lower ABV of 20% (while it was 27% previously) and the label had changed. As I could easily get the rum locally, I no longer needed to store it and decided to sell my supply on eBay. To my surprise - the bottles fetched much higher than the retail value - once it was times ten times higher! It seems there's a loyal following of Bundaberg Rum enthusiasts who appreciate the uniqueness of old and limited edition bottles.
It was about this time that [I guess] the Bundaberg Rum Company also realised this, as they started releasing more and more limited edition bottles & batch varieties (something they continue to do to this day).
So I started to look for other Bundaberg Rum products and found that there were a lot of limited edition bottles that were not available in retail stores and often only for sale online with the low bottle numbers reserved for pre-order or locals to the Brewery it's self. It was around this time that I was invited to be in the bridal-party for my cousins wedding and where I met a loosely-connected family member that had recently retired in Bundaberg (and also enjoyed the odd bottle himself). How convenient! He'd been very open to the idea of attending the brewery on lunch days on my behalf and picking up a case for me (with the payment of a bottle for himself). This was the start of my collection!