The Lone Caner – Page 44 – A Solo Reviewer's Take on Rums

Rum Nation Jamaica 1990 23 Year Old Supreme Lord VII (Hampden) – Review

Nov 032016

We should be grateful that some makers still have sufficient stocks to permit the issuance of rums old enough to vote – we sure won’t see many of them much longer. This one does fans of the Jamaican rums no dishonour – it’s great. #313 With the recent 2016 release of the 1991 Jamaica SL VIII, which really is just about as good as they say and maybe even better than this one, I rummaged around my bag of tasting notes and remembered I had a bottle from that island from a year or two back knocking about and gathering [Click here for the full review…]

Black Joe Jamaican Rum (1980s)

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Oct 302016

Rumaniacs Review 025 | 0425 In spite of the recent (2015-2016) resurgent charge of Jamaicans on the world rum scene, an older rum like this reminds us that for a long time they were actually rather quiescent, and exported a lot for rebottling overseas – to Italy in this case, where a small outfit named Illva Saronno produced the Black Joe in the 1980s. The company, founded in 1922, primarily produces Amaretto, bitters and Sicilian wines (“Illva” is an acronym which stands for Industria Lombarda Liquori Vini e Affini – they are located just north of Genoa). I imagine that [Click here for the full review…]

R. L. Seale’s Finest Barbados 10 YO Rum (Foursquare) – Review

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Oct 292016

R. L. Seale's Finest Barbados 10 YO Rum (Foursquare) - Review

Overrated. Apologies to lovers of the rum, but it’s a mediocre ten year old in a cool bottle. #312 The R.L. Seale 10 year old is a sort of old stalwart in the pantheon of Barbados hooch. Sooner or later everyone passes by it, and it’s considered a benchmark against which, in the past, many Barbadian rums were rated, one of the basket of rums that defined the entire Bajan style. In this day of independent bottlers and full proof offerings, to say nothing of Foursquare’s own tinkering and varied expressions, it starts to show something of its age. And [Click here for the full review…]

Don Papa 7 Year Old Rum – Review

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Oct 242016

Caner’s Rum Quality Inverse Square Conjecture: quality of rum is inversely proportional to the square of the sum of [ glitziness of website plus design of the label ]. #311 The presentation and advertising and marketing of this rum is all about fancy bottle and label design, gorgeous visuals, and words to make you giddy with anticipation. It nails all aspects of those. Everything else is secondary, except the rum itself, which is tertiary. Just to set the stage: I honestly thought my amigo Henrik, in his savage takedown of the rum, was exaggerating his despite. However, intrigued, I begged [Click here for the full review…]

Ron Aldea Caña Pura White Rum – Review

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Oct 092016

The confusion as to what this white is meant for – a soft mixing rum, or an intro to individualistic macho – makes it, paradoxically enough, falter at both. #310 You can imagine my surprise when I ran through the Ron Aldea line of rums from the Canary Islands last year, and after talking to the genial guy at the booth at my usual inordinate length, realized with astonishment that here was Santiago Bronchales, who previously was deeply involved with Ocean’s Atlantic, a rum I had thought was perhaps too overambitious for its own good, if reasonably drinkable. Once he realized [Click here for the full review…]

Traveller’s “Parrot” 3-Barrel 3 YO Rum – Review

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Oct 042016

Traveller's "Parrot" 3-Barrel 3 YO Rum - Review

A light, easygoing, tasty three year old that’s better than average. #309 Located in Belmopan (capital of Belize), Travellers is a distillery which traces its origins to 1953 when Master Blender Senor Omario Jaime Pedomo opened a bar he named Traveller’s as a nod to the rum sales made to people travelling to and from Belize City. The company currently uses molasses with natural fermentation (both source of the former and duration of the latter are unknown to me at this time) and double distills the result in a triple column continuous still, for a supposedly smoother, lighter taste. [Click here for the full review…]

Rhum Rhum Libération 2010 Vieux Agricole – Review

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Oct 022016

Rhum Rhum Libération 2010 Vieux Agricole - Review

Not quite on the level of either of the 2012 editions #308 *** When trying many rums of similar antecedents – year, maker, style – what we are doing is examining all the ways they are similar, or not. The underlying structure is always the same, and we search for points of difference, positive or negative, much in the way we review wines, or James Bond movies. Velier’s own Caronis and Demeraras are examples of this, as is this collaboration with Gianni Capovilla from Bielle on Marie Galante (Guadeloupe). Some reviewers take this to the extremes of delving into the [Click here for the full review…]

La Confrérie du Rhum Millésime 2014 Cuvée Speciale Rhum Blanc – Review

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Sep 282016

La Confrérie du Rhum Millésime 2014 Cuvée Speciale Rhum Blanc - Review

#307 Inhaling the powerful scents of this rhum is to be reminded of all the reasons why white unaged agricoles should be taken seriously as drinks in their own right. Not for Longueteau and La Confrérie the fierce, untamed — almost savage — attack of the clairins; and also not for them the snore-fests of the North American whites which is all that far too many have tried. When analyzing the aromas billowing out from my tasting glass, what I realized was that this thing steered a left-of-middle course between either of those extremes, while tilting more towards the backwoods [Click here for the full review…]

Seven Fathoms Premium Rum – Review

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Sep 262016

* The rum that Pyrat’s could have been #306 A trend I see gathering more and more steam these days is that of snazzy marketing campaigns for (mostly) new rums, bugling their lovingly preserved family recipes, boasting slick webpages oddly short on facts but long on eye candy, trumpeting old traditions made new (but respectfully adhered to), or new and innovative production methods which enhance the final product. Words like “artisan”, “premium”, “handcrafted”, “traditional”, “every single drop” are tossed around with the insouciant carelessness of hormonal teenagers with their chastity. This kind of folderol just irritates me, not least because [Click here for the full review…]

Botran 75th Anniversary Gran Reserva Especial Solera 25 Years – Review

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Sep 222016

Botran 75th Anniversary Gran Reserva Especial Solera 25 Years - Review

The best of the Botrans, deservedly so. But it could have been better. #305 *** Botran’s top-of-the-line Special Edition is so soft it makes a feather pillow feel like it’s stuffed with discarded syringes. In comparison, the skin on a baby’s bum is rough as the glass shards on the wall around the house of a banana republic’s paranoid dictator. Yet it’s issued at a mere 40%, and that it has more qualities than defects is to its everlasting credit and our relief, for soleras do not often get much huzzah from hardcore rum fans, who prefer to have rums [Click here for the full review…]

Botran 1893 Ron Añejo Solera 18 Years – Review

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Sep 222016

Botran 1893 Ron Añejo Solera 18 Years - Review

For the bucks, you get a soft bang. #304 *** There are two more Guatemalan Botrans I have notes for, and perhaps see if we can find points of commonality or differences among the set, so let’s get them out of the way, rather than go somewhere else this week. I wrote that the blanca was an interesting if ultimately uninspiring white, while the solera 15 wasn’t bad for what it was, and had a few tastes that were worthy of note. The 1893 Solera 18 is a step up the ladder of the brand – also 40% ABV, column [Click here for the full review…]

Botran Ron Añejo Reserva Solera 15 Years – Review

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Sep 192016

Botran Ron Añejo Reserva Solera 15 Years - Review

As soleras go, this one is pretty good, and is less sweet than many, which is to its advantage #303 *** Sooner or later, everyone who drinks the good stuff passes through the solera style of rums. Some brands have become behemoths, like the Zacapa 23 or Dictadors, and are adored and reviled in equal measure. The key points for both sides are the taste and the age statement. Given the increasing polarization of the rum world between those who “like what they like” versus those who feel only “real rums” should be marketed as such (and drunk), and who [Click here for the full review…]

Botran Ron Añejo Reserva Blanca – Review

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Sep 182016

Botran Ron Añejo Reserva Blanca - Review

A laid back white rum with more of a profile than expected #302 *** “A balanced combination of distilled rums” remarks the webpage for the Guatemalan company Botran, which makes a number of light, Spanish style rums in the solera method, and goes on in rhapsodic marketspeak about being aged in the mountains of Guatemala in lightly toasted white oak American barrels (although note that I was told by a brand rep that this rum was aged in French oak). It may sound like snippiness on my part, but in truth this is still more information than many other makers [Click here for the full review…]

Compagnie des Indes Jamaica 57% Navy Strength

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Sep 132016

Compagnie des Indes Jamaica 57% Navy Strength

Among the most fiercely aromatic and tasty five year olds around. #301 *** Although at the writing of this review, I had no idea which four Jamaican rums comprise the blend of this 57% island beefcake which was distilled in 2010 and bottled in 2015, I was neither good enough nor arrogant enough to guess on the strength of the taste. So after sending the question to Florent Beuchet, he responded a few weeks later by stating it was Hampden, Monymusk, Worthy Park and one more which, with the same penchant for sly secrecy that informed his Indonesian rum, he [Click here for the full review…]

The 300th Review

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Sep 082016

*** I feel like a literary flea next to someone like Serge Valentin on Whisky Fun, who just published his 12,000th whisky tasting note. But you know, given the slender reach of my purse, the way I write and the time available to do it all, I’m not displeased with reaching this little milestone. “About two or three years,” the Last Hippie (who now runs the site AllThingsWhisky) and I remarked to each other many moons ago, when we were discussing longevity. “Maybe a hundred or so rums.” That’s how long it was thought I’d be able to write for [Click here for the full review…]

Whisper Antigua Gold Rum – Review

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Sep 062016

A very light and pleasant mixing rum from two French students who decided they wanted to make rums themselves instead of letting English Harbour get all the glory (#300) *** There is probably a lesson in the differences between the new 28 year old Arôme and the Whisper Antigua rum – one was “created” (I use the word loosely) by a member of the 1%, for the 1%, with very little information provided for rabble rousers like us and nothing but disdain for the 99%. The other is a youngish two-or-so year old rum made by a couple of brash [Click here for the full review…]

La Confrérie du Rhum Millésime 2007 Martinique (HSE) – Review

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Aug 302016

La Confrérie du Rhum Millésime 2007 Martinique (HSE) - Review

A lovely, supple rhum from the French island. (#299 / 87/100) *** La Confrérie du Rhum’s Martinique Extra Vieux (as labelled), a 2007 millésime rhum bottled at a forceful 52.2% had darker notes reminding me of the Damoiseau 1989, until it went off on its own path and in its own way, which makes perfect sense since it’s actually from Habitation St Etienne. And while I have not had enough of those to make any kind of statement, after trying this one I bought a few more just to see whether the quality kept pace…because La Confrérie’s rhum was quite [Click here for the full review…]

The Real McCoy 5 Year Old Rum – Review

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Aug 282016

Understated five year old mixing material Last time around I looked with admiration at the St. Nicholas Abbey 5 Year old, suggesting that in its unadorned simplicity and firmness lay its strength…it didn’t try to do too much all at the same time and was perfectly content to stay simple. It focused on its core competencies, in management-speak. Yet that same day, just minutes apart, I also tried the Real McCoy, another Bajan five year old, and liked it less. Since both rums are from Barbados, both are unadulterated, and both five years old, it must be the barrels and [Click here for the full review…]

St. Nicholas Abbey 5 Year Old Single Cask Rum – Review

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Aug 242016

St. Nicholas Abbey 5 Year Old Single Cask Rum - Review

Might be heresy to say so, but I thought it better than the same company’s eight year old. One of the reasons why the St. Nicholas Abbey Five year old gets the full etched-bottle treatment of the 8, 10, 12, 15 and 18 year olds (which are all remarkably good for 40% rums and earned good reviews from across the spectrum, including mine), is because the company is justifiably proud of this being the first rums they made from entirely their own matured stocks. Previously they were ageing Foursquare rums to make the originals noted above — the ten may [Click here for the full review…]

Boote Star Demerara Proprietor Reserve 20 Year Old Rum – Review

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Aug 232016

Boote Star Demerara Proprietor Reserve 20 Year Old Rum - Review

The finishing regime of this rum may not work for all comers, but does at least create a decent aged product from a well-known still. This is quite an international rum – made in Guyana, shipped to the UK by an Italian importer and bottled by a Dutch company. Boote Star is a Dutch bottler (actually called the Associated Distillers Group), about which there is maddeningly little hard information, aside from the fact that (a) they also have a ten year old, and (b) they appear to have sourced the rum from an Italian distributor and distiller called Distilleria Dellavalla situated [Click here for the full review…]

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