Malahat Spirits

Not to be confused with Maleagant from Arthurian legends or Magic hat the beloved Vermontb rewery, Malahat named for the rum running schooner that transported spirits off our coast long ago. It’s got more than just history in it’s name, it’s got history in it’s décor with artifacts from the Star of India hidden throughout. The tasting room, designed to feel cave (Point Loma Rum runners) like using natural skylight really feels secret with the tall barrel towers surrounding the tasting area & stills.
Tony Grillo, one of the owners gave our tour giving insight and history along with details to their operation. The private event room has art on the tops of barrels that are a nice highlight to the actual aging barrels surrounding you. I felt like the large long table was a secret meeting room. I love the décor of the entrance despite being as expected in the middle of an industrial park.
Large stills are the focal point, but it’s hard to not notice the surrounding barrels. The long countertop adds a real authenticity to the whole operation. The friendly owners and décor lend credibility to the craft. But the real treasure, the real booty, is the rum itself. Thought they are doing spirits, currently they only offer rum in 3 varieties. When they say hand and small batch they mean hand and small batch. From the bottles to the label to the production beginning to end. They are exact in their proportions and vision for each spirit wining Gold last year at the SF Spirits Competition.
Their standard rum is really more the standard others strive for, all hearts, proprietary combination of multiple molasses types and yeast combinations give a great canvas for cocktails. Not at all the bland vodka-​esqueness of the big boys wash. Smoother than Tony, Tonee, Toni.
Spiced rum smells like spiced rum should taste, but feels bourbon. Tastes like something more along the lines of a scotch in that it almost tastes too rich in flavor to mix and is a meant for sipping. It mixes great and adds depth to simple drinks and body to complex cocktails. A dash of nutmeg works great for winter drinks pairing with the natural cinnamon afterthought.
Ginger Rum though lower in ABV. The natural, fresh ginger is apparent from the beginning and lingers, but not in a strong sort of hot/​heat way. Think more ale thane beer, more goslings than Bundaberg. I like using all 3 in a zombie. They peel the ginger fresh in house.
A great addition to San Diegos growing craft distilleries giving bartenders and San Diego’s a whole new world to play with. You already are seeing local only cocktails from the spirits to herbals/​botanicals, but with more places doing more I foresee San Diego’s cocktail scene being almost inclusive.

One of 2 rum distilleries in the Miramar area that I know of (the other being Ballast Point) and this one does not disappoint.
You enter the building through a clever and creative nautical themed entrance. I won’t spoil it for you so just GO and see for yourself. It’s fun.
The rum is fantastic. Do the «tasting» and I liked the aged version. Was almost like a spicy whiskey. Our rum attendant was very cool, knowledgeable, and fun. One of the owners was also there educating us on their process.
Thumbs up to this rum distillery in the craft beer crowded field of Miramar area.

I loved how the tasting room’s entryway was decorated. I did wish there was some sort of signage for it. Or have the cloth doors separated a bit as an indicator, as it was already hard to find since the area was dark.
This was my first time trying rum, and now I’m afraid that all the other rum brands out there will pale in comparison.
–The original rum was surprisingly sweet, in a subtle way.
–Ginger rum tasted like Reed’s ginger beer without the carbonation.
–Their spiced rum was my favorite. The aroma and flavors of the 12 different spices exploded like fireworks in my mouth. Truly delicious.
–I wasn’t much of a fan of the black tea rum. I’m sure it’d be better with lemonade mixed in.
There’s no air circulation so it was stuffy and warm.

Nice tasting room (this is not a bar), with a cool layout and display of the equipment. I learned a lot about rum and the process of making it, and I do believe that this is the point.
The spiced rum was very good as was the black tea rum, ginger too. They also make bourbon.
I am glad for their success and wish them enough to success to get that rum on the shelf here in Vegas!

The rums are nice and easy to drink. The people are very informative and interesting. I am looking forward to the bourbon whiskey and gin they will eventually have. The ginger rum would be perfect for mojitos and the black tea rum is easy to have all on its own. Looking forward to buying some soon.

The rum is quite good. We really liked the spiced version. Beautiful vanilla scent.
Why only 2 stars?
We went in on a lark. There was another couple already seated. The host said ‘great we were just about to start’.
She then gave a nice talk about the company & the rum & poured us each five ¼ ounce tastings.
At the end she hit us with a bill of $ 15 for each person. Never mentioned there was any cost for the tasting. We paid $ 30 for 2.5 ounces of alcohol. Not worth $ 30.
Be forewarned.

Seems odd when you pull up, but after walking through the maze of prohibition loot you walk into a gorgeous tasting room. Matt was knowledgeable and friendly as he served us and answered our nine million questions. The rum was great! Spiced rum was my favorite, but the ginger was delish as well.
Definitely worth a trip!

GRAND ENTRANCE … Don’t let the outside fool you. Once you enter you will find it to be a bit of a «maze» lol … Did a travelzoo rum tasting and what a good experience. Got to keep the shot glass as a gift … The spiced rum is a must try … Enjoy

Great place! Cool entrace. Really fun and knowledgeable.

Located off Miramar Road. Spirits are good. Interesting entry way… Worth a trip.

After finding a bottle on the shelf at bevmo we had to come try it in person. Local San Diego rum! With a prohibition /​speakeasy atmosphere ! Very fun!

We bought a living social coupon and this place was AMAZING!!! Great rum, really nice people, and the ambiance is awesome! Must try! Great to have such a great rum distillery so close to home!

If you like rum and love San Diego you need to stop by this distillery. The tasting takes about half an hour and they’ll pour you a bit from their entire line. Tom did our tasting and we could tell he really loved the business. The spiced rum and ginger rum were my favorites. They also let us taste their iced tea rum and their bourbon, which are still in testing stage — my girlfriend really loved the iced tea rum. It tasted like sweet tea with a big rum kick. It would probably be awesome with lemonade over ice on a hot day. I hope it makes it to market!
Because of zoning they can’t sell bottles at the distillery, but we were able to find their stuff at BevMo (picked up a bottle of the spiced rum.)
The entrance was a bit confusing but awesome to walk through.
Go and check this place out!

I absolutely love the doorway entrance to get into this distillery very creative very fun very detail orientated great idea! I purchased a deal on LivingSocial and it was well worth it for six tastings of rum for two people and a cute take-​home shot glass the spiced rum was our absolute favorite then came the ginger rum and the bourbon was strong!!! The co-​owner (I think) gave a nice half hour session with our tasting and description of the distillery and how the name came to be etc and rum making process. it’s a great interesting story and and it was really fun to do the tasting I would definitely buy the rum because it was so delicious. It was well worth it to come and do a tasting. I am usually more of a wine drinker but this was a fun change of pace and the run was so delicious I just wish they gave out cards letting you know where you could purchase. he did tell us that where we could buy the rum but after having six tastings I kind of forgot what he said. I believe they might carry the rum at bevmo. I want to give them five stars but I was kind of bummed at the end of our rum tasting that we were able to buy any of the actual product at the distillery.

My friends and I absolutely loved the entryway into this place! Though it was hard to find the door at first considering there was a frosted picture of a boat and my friends completely missed the door! An adventure to get in, but completely memorable. I keep wanting to run in and out of that walkway though dangerous and not recommended one bit for safety reasons.
Notes:
They do not sell bottles here. What a shame! But you can get it at your local BevMo.
They started with rum and it’s amazing! I would highly recommend the spiced and ginger rum. I hate ginger, but that was pretty awesome!
Please tip after your tasting. It is much appreciated!
My tasting adventure:
Rum: Had a nice burn to it. My friends loved this one. I’ll be honest that I could tell the quality of this rum, but not enough to distinguish between other qualities of rum without a tasting side by side.
Spiced Rum: Amazing flavor that I haven’t seen before. I would highly recommend anyone to buy the best spiced rum I’ve had thus far.
Ginger Rum: Really well done. Loved how they brought out the ginger flavor. I’m very impressed with how great this was and the wonderful flavor of ginger they brought out in this rum… despite the fact I hate ginger and would probably not buy this other than for my ginger loving friends.
Barrel Aging Rum: Really tasty. I really enjoyed the flavor from the Silver Oak Barrels. I absolutely love Silver Oak and probably love this rum more just because of it, but the flavor speaks for itself how great it is.
4 Months Aged: A lot of flavor that seemed very separated and not blended. I feel like this requires some aging or something to blend it all, but this was well taken in by my friends.
Overall, I love this place. I would highly recommend anyone to go here. I loved it so much that I recommended someone to go here while I was there! I love the backstory for this place. Not only that, but the people are really friendly and the rum is amazing!

I recently bought a Livingsocial deal for a tasting for two and decided to go a couple of days ago. The entrance into the tasting room was really interesting, and I really enjoyed learning about how it was modeled after the Point Loma tunnels used by the Prohibition rum runners. Tony was very knowledgable about rum distillation and was willing to answer any questions we had about the process and business. We both really loved their spiced rum, but found their ginger rum to be more intriguing since it had more citrus notes than spice. It was nice of Tony to let us try their bourbon since it’s still young; I like how he suggested that we can come back in a couple of months to try it again. I also enjoyed trying some of their experimental flavors, such as iced tea rum and candy cane rum. Overall we had a wonderful time and want to stop by BevMo really soon to pick up a bottle (hope they’ll be able to sell bottles the next time we visit)!

We had a private tasting with Tony Grillo, one of the owners and distillers at Malahat Spirits. I have always liked rum but was astounded by the depth of flavor of the rums. The spiced rum (Gold Medal at San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2014) was the most balanced and interesting profile of flavors in a spiced rum I have ever encountered. The Ginger infused rum was fantastic and the Barrel Aged Rum (not available yet) was as good as any high end sipping rum I have had. Tony was so good at explaining the process and held our interest for the entire time we were there. I cannot wait to get to BevMo to buy some to take home!