Fifth release in Riise’s Founders Reserve series is out! This release comes in 13,995 bottles, has an orange marking and an alcohol strength of 44.4%.
About the Product
The first 3 XO Founders Reserve sold out in record time. Due to the huge demand, we are now adding 3 new Founders Reserves to the collection, also each with their own alcohol strength. If you are lucky and get your hands on this fourth collectible, and already have the previous 3, then you still have the full collection in the Founders Reserve series. The only visible difference is the color of the batch indication and the alcohol strength. Each edition of A.H. Riise Founders XO is only available in very small batches. Each bottle is numbered with a batch and bottle number.
There are only 13,995 A.H. Riise XO Founders Reserve No. 5 bottles throughout Europe. The bottle is bottled at an ABV of 44.4%.
About A. H. Riise Rome
Albert Heinrich Riise (1810-1882) originally came from Ærøskøbing, and trained as a cand. Pharm. in Copenhagen. Where he was later employed at Det kgl. Military and Waisenhus pharmacy.
Riise was very keen to open his own pharmacy, and when the opportunity presented itself, he traveled in 1838 to the island of Sankt Thomas in the then Danish West Indies, where he eventually opened St. Thomas Apothecary Hall A.H. Rice.
Here he quickly found out that there was good money in trading with other than pharmacy goods, so he also sold household items, cosmetics, canned food, chocolate and much more. Albert’s wholesale trade sold to the entire Caribbean archipelago.
A.H. The Riise brand is born
Riise also started producing rum and bitters. Initially for medical use against stomach ailments and other ailments. He developed brands such as Old St. Croix, Riise’s Guava Rum and A.H. Riise Rome.
Sales of rum went incredibly well, so well in fact that Riise eventually became a rich and influential man. He was given several positions of trust at St. Thomas, i.a. he became chairman of the Colonial Council, director of Bank og St. Thomas, churchwarden, member of the City Council and board member of several companies. In 1860 he became Knight of Dannebrog, and in 1878 he became Etatsraad – a rank of high prestige – because he had donated St. Thomas Municipality $6,000 for the purchase of three school buildings.
From St. Thomas to Frederiksberg.
Albert Riise left the pharmacy at Skt. Thomas to his son-in-law Jens Alfred Alexius Jørgensen, after which he travels to Copenhagen. Here he buys a large villa, which he names “Villa St. Thomas”. Albert had the park planted with rare plants, created ponds and built a mighty greenhouse. He died in the villa in 1882, aged 72. The grave site at Solbjerg Park Cemetery can still be found today.
In 1883, sons Valdemar and Karl jointly take over the pharmacy at St Thomas. However, the pharmacy burned to the ground at Christmas 1895 – a candle ignited a rickety Christmas tree! Valdemar, who now runs the pharmacy himself, quickly gets it rebuilt, but due to prolonged illness – as well as the dwindling commercial importance of the Danish West Indies – he sells both the pharmacy and Riise Bay Rum to Oluf Volmer Poulsen in 1913.
Upon the sale of the Danish West Indies to the USA in 1917, Poulsen transferred his grant to Svane Apotek in Vejle. The pharmacy at Skt. Thomas still exists today, now under the name “Vejle St Thomas Apotek”. Likewise, the name A.H. Riise is still well-known at Skt Thomas – among other things you will find A.H. Riise Mall at 37 Main Street, where rum and bitters under the name A.H. are still produced. Rice.
