
April 30, 2017

Wildly different rums

I know, this is like tasting Vat 69 and Brora within the same session…

Dictador 12 yo (40%, OB, Colombia, +/-2015)

The bottle says this baby’s ‘aged 12 years’ but it also says that it’s a solera. A word that sounds as good as mustard and coffee together. Colour: gold. Nose: hello?! Some coffee and an old copper kettle, plus indeed some mustard and bitter almonds, with a style that’s reminiscent of that of some young dry oloroso. Rather not off-putting so far. Mouth: sweetened, liqueury, and quite vulgar, well in the ‘dulce’ style that some whisky types do not like too much. Orange liqueur and toasted oak shavings, plus litres of coffee liqueur. In short, calls for ice. Finish: medium, sugary, Kahkua-ish. Bittersweet aftertaste. Comments: totally not my style, but we’ve tasted worse sugared rums that started with ‘D’. SGP:730 - 62 points.

Nicaragua 16 yo 2000/2016 (53.9%, Liquid Treasures, barrel, Rum Session No.2)

Nicaragua’s a provenance that’s a little scary. Liquid Treasure’s a name that’s not. Colour: gold. Nose: nice paraffiny and vegetal start, then rather candle wax and cut grass, with touches of green bananas and a little coconut, probably from the oak. Grape pips oil. A light style as far as aromas are concerned. With water: a little soot and touches of wet chalk, which is nice. Mouth (neat): a clean Central-American, without the usual high sugar. It’s fine light-style rum, well textured, with some coconut again, bananas, and tinned peaches. Nice touches of blood oranges. With water: it’s the sweetness that comes out more. Light molasses. Finish: medium, sweet but grassy as well. A little vanilla fudge. Nice balance. Comments: I’d say you can’t do much better with this very style of rum. So, twenty more points! SGP:440 - 82 points.

Perhaps another indie Nicaraguan?

Nicaraguan Rum 17 yo 1999/2016 (59.5%, Hunter Laing, Kill Devil, cask #15461, 231 bottles)

Colour: gold. Nose: similar, obviously. Same light yet oily style, with some sunflower oil, a touch of copper, some cut grass, hay, green bananas… With water: nice and fresh, more on cane juice and oranges. No big noser but there’s some elegance in there. Mouth (neat): starts quite citric, gets then grassier again. A feeling of glycerine – and yet I’m pretty sure there isn’t any – and then more green spices, around cardamom and green pepper. With water: loses it a bit when watered down. Gets a tad too grassy, perhaps. Eating grass. Finish: medium, rather vegetal. Comments: I liked the nose better than the palate – quite a achievement given that these rums are usually not quite ‘nosing’ rums upon my short experience. SGP:450 - 81 points.

Guyana 17 yo 1999/2017 (56.3%, Plantation, cask #3)

This one’s been finished for 1.5 years in ‘ancestral’ Cognac casks. All I hope is that it’s not been sweetened up, whether at birth or just before bottling bottling. Colour: deep gold. Nose: rather soft, not unlike the lightest Enmores, without any estery build-up, and rather on bananas, peaches, and simply cane juice. So a soft one, apparently. With water: would I say the cognac comes out? Maybe… Mouth (neat): there is Plantation’s usual sweetness indeed, but it seems that the distillate managed to digest the sugary liqueur. Part of it, because it’s still sweetened rum. Other than that, quite some coffee and some chocolate liqueur. We’re not far from the sweetest El Dorados. With water: really very sweet, but the core is very good, banana-y, with some pineapple liqueur as well… Finish: medium, really very sweet. A touch of menthol in the aftertaste. Comments: a sexy sweet rum. I do not like sweet rums, but it’s one of the best I’ve tried. It’s quite an achievement to keep some freshness when adding so much liqueur… Unless it was there in the first place! SGP:740 - 76 points.

Domaine de Courcelles 1972/2014 (47%, Rhumhouse)

This is traditional rum from Guadeloupe, so not agricole if I’m not wrong, made in the old Courcelles still in the Distillerie de St Marthe. Because it seems that the original Courcelles Distillerie was closed in 1964. This is what they used to call ‘rhum de sucrerie’. Colour: gold. Nose: some extraordinary liquorice! Really huge liquorice, it’s like when you open a fresh bag of liquorice mints. In the background, some aniseed, burnt sugar, and, well, even more liquorice. More liquorice than in liquorice. The fact is, I love liquorice. After one minute or two, we get more old roses, late harvest gewürztraminer, gum Arabic, and bags of prunes. Stunning, extremely aromatic. Mouth: amazing! Vieille prune, cinnamon rolls, liquorice allsorts, sloe eau-de-vie, aquavit, caraway, honeydew, chouchen… How good is this? Finish: long, on honeys and spicy cakes, with these prunes and all this liquorice still singing loud… And yet, it’s never stuffy. Wonderful tarry, almost smoky aftertaste. Also some maraschino. Comments: do not miss the last bottles. SGP:643 – 91 points.

Check the index of all rums I've tasted so far