Naga “Shani” Kingdom of Siam 11YO Thailand Rum – Review

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Jun 172026
 
Naga "Shani" Kingdom of Siam 11YO Thailand Rum - Review

The label of the “Shani” requires some explanation. Part of the branded Naga line of rums — a sort of cross between a merchant bottling, a contract rum and an independent bottling — it is made in Thailand by ThaiBev and released by Sebastien Folloppe, a consultant and marketer in the rum world who once worked for Bardinet. The word “Shani” has a double meaning: on the one hand it refers to the purple and red colours associated with Thai sunsets on Saturdays, and also denotes Saturday itself, or the planet Saturn in Hindu and Sanskrit-derived languages across Asia. And [Click here for the full review…]


Naga Indochinese 10 YO Rum (Thailand) – Review

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Jun 082026
 
Naga Indochinese 10 YO Rum (Thailand) - Review

We’ve run into Naga and its rums before, back in 2019 at the Paris Rhumfest that year, when we tried their Indonesian lineup. There’s a reason those rums and not the ones from Thailand were there, and that backstory is so interesting (and lengthy) I have elected to include it below this review, so let’s just dive straight into the rum itself. Naga is a branded rum from Thailand, supplied by one of the many distilleries owned by the spirits quasi-monopoly ThaiBev. The label incorporates many different elements: the word “Naga” for example, refers to a mythical water serpent in [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Viejo de Caldas “15” Gran Reserva Especial (Colombia) – Review

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May 282026
 
Ron Viejo de Caldas "15" Gran Reserva Especial (Colombia) - Review

Introduction Very early on in this gig, I came across an underproofed Colombian rum, the Ron Viejo de Caldas 8YO, bottled at a flaccid 35%. It was a product of Industria Licorera de Caldas (ILC), a distillery located in Manizales, a city in the department of Caldas, about an eight hour drive to the west of Bogota. I never saw another one of their products until recently, so when I was given the opportunity to try the 40% ABV “15” at Berlin’s Rum Depot, I took the opportunity to see whether the newer, older expression would or could change my [Click here for the full review…]


Nobilis No. 42 Diamond 2014 8YO DHE/PM (Oloroso Cask) Guyana Rum – Review

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May 182026
 
Nobilis No. 42 Diamond 2014 8YO DHE/PM (Oloroso Cask) Guyana Rum - Review

The Danes love their rum. Like, I mean, really love it. For a country as small as they are (just under six million), they drink more than any of the other Scandinavian countries. AH Riise, Skotlander and Hansen are major rum brands, there are an even dozen or small and mid-sized distilleries making rum scattered around the small country, and they have had some really cool indie bottlers over there – 1423, Rom Deluxe, Norse Cask and Nobilis, for example – possessing reputations that are nothing to sneeze at.  It is this last named company, that is behind the rum [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Club Private Selection No. 63 “The Beast” Blended Rum – Review

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May 072026
 
Rum Club Private Selection No. 63 "The Beast" Blended Rum - Review

Introduction and background As I’ve noted before, perhaps the best rum shop in Germany is the Rum Depot in Berlin, run by Dirk Becker, the man behind the annual German Rum Festival, itself one of the top rum-focused spirits expos in the world. I’ve been coming to this place regularly since 2012, a practice that I have followed ever since, and these days, I always drop in any time in the city. Sometime around that same year (2012), Rum Depot began not only selling rums, but bottling them for its branded line of “Rum Club Private Selection” editions. Like most [Click here for the full review…]


Below The Salt “Trois Capitaines” Merchant Reserve Navy Rum: The King’s Cut – Review

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Apr 102026
 
Below The Salt "Trois Capitaines" Merchant Reserve Navy Rum: The King's Cut - Review

Introduction If you recall, a few weeks ago Cap’n Colp hove into view, all flags waving and bunting streaming, and rolled a barrel into my house. No, really. Uninvited, unexpected, unannounced (I hesitate to say “unwanted”) he took out his trusty thief, jammed it into the barrel, and poured me a shot of liquid gelignite so extraordinary for its extreme youth, that here, a fortnight later, I’m still  uncrossing my eyes. I mean, that sh*t was really quite amazing, the more so since it’s such a rare thing, here in the wilds of suburbia where the LCBO holds sway and [Click here for the full review…]


Habitation Velier Foursquare 2021 LFT Unaged White Rum – Review

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Mar 252026
 
Habitation Velier Foursquare 2021 LFT Unaged White Rum - Review

I still remember the hushed rumours that swirled around the rumiverse even before the 2022 TWE Rumshow opened its doors. Richard Seale had something new, something original and something fierce in his leopardskin rock star trousers, and while supposedly it wasn’t officially on the shelves, maybe a sly wink and a significant nod to Pete Holland who was tending booth that time, and perhaps,possibly – you could score a taste? Or so the tall-tale teller in me likes to remember. It’s a good story, isn’t it? The truth is rather more prosaic. Yes we did hear rumours about a new [Click here for the full review…]


Phraya “Deep Matured” Aged Thailand Rum – Review

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Mar 162026
 
Phraya "Deep Matured" Aged Thailand Rum - Review

The top end release of the Phraya triptych of aged rums that is released by Sang Som distillery in Thailand clearly seeks to dominate the premium aged rum space in Asia, and proudly boasts of the 8 gold medals it has won in various spirits competitions from 2012 to 2024. The bottle is handsome to a fault, the backstory is cute, the wording evokes interest, the price is high enough to suggest exclusivity, and the website is really pretty, with lots of nice photos and words. Unfortunately, when we take all this apart, what remains is somewhat less than the [Click here for the full review…]


Phraya “Elements” 8YO Thailand Rum – Review

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Mar 132026
 
Phraya "Elements" 8YO Thailand Rum - Review

In a previous review I looked at the entry level Phraya aged rum from Thailand, called “Elements”, and this one is not too far distanced from that one, except in so far that it has a definitive age statement – 8 years. However, it is an ongoing blended rum, so there is not a year of distillation or bottling to be found anywhere – and, as the brand rep at the German Rum Festival remarked to me, it is a relatively new product, having been introduced in 2023, almost a decade after the original edition came to market. Clearly, then, [Click here for the full review…]


Phraya “Elements” Thailand Rum – Review

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Mar 102026
 
Phraya "Elements" Thailand Rum - Review

With the release of the Shakara rum by Velier a couple of years ago, and small-distillery bottlings made by Chalong Bay and Issan, Thailand has come into the spotlight as an Asian rum producer to which we should perhaps be paying more attention. For now the rums we know about are made mostly by such small producers, because even the big guns in Asia are somewhat less known (or revered) in the west – Mekhong, Naga, Tanduay, and ThaiBev’s Sang Som are some of them. To this stable has been added the Phraya brand, first established in 2011 by the [Click here for the full review…]


Worthy Park Cane Juice High Ester Pot Still Rum (2024 Ed.) – Review

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Feb 272026
 
Worthy Park Cane Juice High Ester Pot Still Rum (2024 Ed.) - Review

Jamaicans, while known for their white overproofs (think Hampden’s Rum Fire, J. Wray White Overproof and Worthy Park’s own Rum Bar) and of course their funkiness, are less famed for anything to do with cane juice. Yet, for once, here, we have a rip snorting 54% piece of cane juice derived liquid gelignite channeling both agricole purity and Jamaican funk-badassery, that causes innocent Caners to expire at the side of the road after taking a snootful. No, really Unfortunately, this is something of a limited special edition, released on behalf of a NY based spirits distribution company called Skurnik Wine [Click here for the full review…]


Velier “Mother Mesccia” Pure Single Rum (Haiti/Monaco) – Review

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Feb 082026
 
Velier "Mother Mesccia" Pure Single Rum (Haiti/Monaco) - Review

Introduction With respect to Velier’s 2025 released white rum called “Mother Mesccia”, it seems to be something of an adapted revival – it’s neither precisely old, nor precisely new. At best, it’s a re-interpretation of a product of yesteryear. But it is interesting, from a historical perspective if nothing else. The way the story goes, back in the 17th century, Monaco – then a Mediterranean trading hub –  often bought rum from Genoese sailors returning from the Caribbean, (they exchanged it for local citrus fruits to ward off the vitamin-C deficiency known as scurvy). This rum was then blended with [Click here for the full review…]


La Maison Du Rhum Fortin Distillery 2007 13YO Rum Batch 3 (Paraguay) – Review

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Feb 022026
 
La Maison Du Rhum Fortin Distillery 2007 13YO Rum Batch 3 (Paraguay) - Review

Among South American rums, some countries just don’t make waves outside their own borders. How many of us have heard of Gran Chaco from Bolivia, or Isla Ñ and Tickerman from Argentina, for example? In Paraguay, the source of today’s review, we’ve been fortunate once before to try the “Herocia” from the Fortin brand, and here we have another one from the distillery of origin (see below for details), brought to us courtesy of La Maison du Rhum in France – this is in turn a 2017-founded brand of the French spirits distributor Dugas, and may be the only way [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Club Private Selection #60 Galapagos Islands 2015 10YO Rum (Ecuador) – Review

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Jan 122026
 
Rum Club Private Selection #60 Galapagos Islands 2015 10YO Rum (Ecuador) - Review

The practise of wine and spirits merchants releasing their own branded products is a long and storied one, going back more than a century (think of Berry Bros. and Rudd, Doorly’s, Goslings, or even Masters of Malt, as just a few examples). They acted, therefore, as progenitors and continuations of the indie bottling scene that has so defined the upscale market in the modern rumiverse. One of the best of such shops in Germany is undoubtedly Dirk Becker’s Rum Depot in Berlin, which I have been visiting on and off since 2012 and remains a favourite stopping place of mine. [Click here for the full review…]


Mount Gay Single Estate Blended 5YO Rum (Release #1, 2023) – Review

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Jan 022026
 
Mount Gay Single Estate Blended 5YO Rum (Release #1, 2023) - Review

Introduction Perhaps it was inevitable. The spirits market has been on a downturn since COVID receded and rum has been hit hard. Several mid range indies have gone under or are having financial woes, while the bigger and well known big name producers – Mount Gay, Appleton, DDL et al – are being forced to do some belt tightening of their own, or trying to expand into newer product niches where the sales are smaller and costs higher, but potential margins are larger.  Such new entrants to the field seek to stand out via new production methods, different ageing, or [Click here for the full review…]


Habitation Velier Mhoba 2025 Unaged White Rum (EU release)(South Africa)

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Dec 212025
 
Habitation Velier Mhoba 2025 Unaged White Rum (EU release)(South Africa)

White unaged rums are often seen by the larger mass market audience or their suppliers — somewhat unfairly, I believe – as something of a niche market, fit only for cocktails. The idea that one might sip them neat is perhaps only an enthusiast’s conceit. Yet I believe that for those who want to know serious terroire, and see what can happen when a rum is taken off the leash and left to run around terrorizing innocent rum drinkers, HV’s white rum may be just what they’re looking for. There are two variations of this white unaged brutalist rum from [Click here for the full review…]


Erie Distillery White Rum (USA) – Review

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Oct 192025
 
Erie Distillery White Rum (USA) - Review

Recently, a rum that crossed my path was the US-made Erie White Rum, which is made in NE Pennsylvania by the Erie distillery, founded in 2019 by a Mr. David Harkness. This is a gentleman who has been playing with distillation since 2007, and he seems to be something of a cheerful mad scientist, experimenting with products as varied as limoncello, moonshines, whiskey, white rum, and vodka. In that way, he reminds me of some of the New Australians, who also go all over the map with their products so as to sell to just about anything to anyone who [Click here for the full review…]


El Dorado Single Still “Enmore” Cask Strength 2009 12YO Rum – Review

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Oct 102025
 
El Dorado Single Still "Enmore" Cask Strength 2009 12YO Rum - Review

There are three of these cask strength single-still editions from El Dorado, one from each of the famed “heritage” wooden stills: Versailles, Port Mourant and Enmore. All are full proof, all are very exacting, and all point to the evolution of El Dorado into the premium rum space previously seen to be inhabited mostly by independent bottlers (occasionally  issued halo rums by producers don’t count).  Although there had been movements to issuing still-specific rums before (most notably the Rares in 2015-2018) one never got the impression DDL’s heart was in it: the outturns were too small, people were not initially [Click here for the full review…]


Goslings Family Reserve Old Rum (Rye Cask)(Bermuda) – Review

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Oct 012025
 
Goslings Family Reserve Old Rum (Rye Cask)(Bermuda) - Review

The Family Reserve Old Rum released by Gosling’s is, aside from the single barrel “Papa Seal” edition, probably their top end, limited edition, premium rum, and depending on where you are, costs around CAN$80-100. I’m not sure how regularly they come out, since this is not mentioned on the bottle labels or the website, but based on secondary sources, I think it’s an annual thing. The original release, which was first seen in the early 2000s and is not a seriously limited anything, is the most commonly seen. But in 2024, Gosling’s decided to put out something a bit different: [Click here for the full review…]


Goslings Family Reserve Old Rum (Bermuda) – Review

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Sep 292025
 
Goslings Family Reserve Old Rum (Bermuda) - Review

In the current lineup from Goslings, the Bermuda-based blenders and bottlers (as far as I know they are not distilling rums), there are four different quasi-premium products: the “Spirited Seas” 44% ABV rum which is partially matured on the high seas, the “Papa Seal” single barrel aged rum at 41.5%, and two variations of the “Family Reserve Old Rum” at 40%, one of which we will look at today. In the last century or before it may really have been the practise for estates and distilleries – many owned privately – to hold back some exceptional barrels to bottle for [Click here for the full review…]


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