The Lone Caner – Page 58 – A Solo Reviewer's Take on Rums

Rum Nation Panama 21 Year Old – Review

Jun 152012

Drink this and marvel. Who would have thought the El Dorado 21 or the Juan Santos 21 might have serious competition? For a whisker over $100, Rum Nation’s Panama 21 year old rum will titillate your palate, lift your spirits and be your best friend for life. We are always wrestling – philosophically speaking – with change. And as we get older, we who instituted change, embraced it, championed it…we regret the passing of the old ways which we once loved, but perhaps not well enough to preserve, and now can only remember. I think this way on occasion, and [Click here for the full review…]

Raucous Rum Tasting (05 June 2012)

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Jun 052012

The latest KWM’s Raucous Rums tasting was held in the KWM shop tasting room in Calgary on June 5th, and as usual I squirreled myself (and on this occasion, my grown-up daughter) off into a back corner – she had evinced an interest in the tasting process and I wanted to show her what it was I was interested in and why (though my own feeling is she might have more wanted to cross something off her personal bucket list or something). We nibbled a bit and watched the Scotchguy do his intro. Note that I have given up [Click here for the full review…]

Santa Teresa Bicentenario Rum – Review

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Jun 022012

A good, and very pricey ultra-premium solera, the top of the food chain from Santa Teresa A.J. Vollmer in Venezuela. I’m going to go on record as thinking it’s too much price for too little premium. The $315 Santa Teresa Bicentenario solera rum is made by the privately owned Venezuelan outfit A. J. Vollmer, who also produce the 1796 rum (also a solera, and about which I was unenthused at the time…it may be due for a revisit). It’s a rum I have avoided for over two years in spite of its premium cachet, and because of its price. Every time I’ve [Click here for the full review…]

Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum – Review

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Jun 022012

A solid and well put together rum of intriguing complexity and excellent overall quality. More should not be said, and, indeed, need not be said. It’s good as a sipper or a mixer, over ice or neat. Enjoy. Cruzan is that distillery from St Croix in the West Indies which makes one of my favourite under-$50 rums, the single barrel dark rum, written about and appreciated before I started assigning scores to my reviews. Unlike that somewhat more commercial rum, this one, clearly noted as an estate rum, was also marked as being bottle #344,450 of barrel 86158 and certified by a [Click here for the full review…]

Cabot Tower 100 Proof Demerara Rum – Review

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May 262012

Cabot Tower 100 Proof Demerara Rum - Review

A better than expected, overproof: smoother, tastier, more engaging. Should be tried neat before you bastardize it with a mix, ’cause it may just surprise you too. Yeah. Smell that sucker. That whap you feel in your schnozz is a hundred proof hitting you in da face. This is a rum which indulges in a level of unapologetic phallocentrism that would make Ron Jeremy weep with envy This is what they would serve in Buxton’s Tipperary Hall to my squaddies Biggers and Evan, if they could ever get it. I mean, a hundred proof, wow – sure, his is a [Click here for the full review…]

Mekhong Thai Rum – Review

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May 152012

A gentle, easygoing underproof rum-wannabe. There’s nothing really outstanding about it, and it’s too weak to appeal to me personally: like other Asian rums, however, it does have a taste all its own, and for those who don’t like forty-or-greater percenters, this one will satisfy. Is this a rum at all? Liquorature is littered with comments from both the purists (who disdain any additions) and the tolerant (who don’t mind), and the bone of contention between them is always the same: can a spirit be made from less than 100% cane juice, with additives for taste and profile, and still [Click here for the full review…]

Lemon Hart Demerara 151 Rum – Review

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May 032012

This review was posted first on RumConnection in two parts in May 2012. Thanks to Mike Streeter who lends his site to such occasional contributions that exceed his normal article length. My own, slightly edited (and scored) review which corrected some minor issues and changed the wording a bit, is below. Suffice to say, this is one of those overproofs I really enjoyed. I tried it by itself to write the review, but it’s as a mixer and base that this strong, dark Demerara rum really shines. It’s big, it’s bad, and it’s tougher than a Brickdam jailbird’s meat ration. [Click here for the full review…]

Karukera Rhum Vieux Millesime 1997

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Apr 222012

An excellent agricole for which it is worth splashing out some extra francs: lovely nose, deeper flavours, better body, and in all ways exceeds the cheaper Reserve Speciale from the same company. Unimpressed by the blah of the Karukera Rhum Vieux Reserve Speciale, I then decided to take the hundred dollar Cask Strength 1997 off the shelf where I had hidden it from the prying eyes of my parsimonious wife (she who can spot a shredded receipt from a hundred paces). We don’t see many Guadeloupe rums in Calgary, yet Ralf’s Rum Pages out of Germany lists no less than 12 [Click here for the full review…]

Eight Rums I Will Never Buy Again

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Mar 312012

I really don’t like the rums listed here. It’s appreciated that if there ever was a list to piss people off, this is it. Maltsters will snicker into their sporrans to see one of their pet peeves taken down a few notches. Rum pundits will in turns be offended or delighted, depending on their viewpoint and their own predilections for rums. Others will nod (I hope). We do ten best lists, or top ten lists or “best of whatever” lists – not often that you see a list of the bottom feeders (although I’m definitely not the first). The genesis [Click here for the full review…]

Ten Decent Rums (Roughly) Under $100

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Mar 312012

* In late 2010, for Christmas, I posted a list of my favourite rums under fifty dollars. It’s proved to be quite a hit: for a modest little site like ours, that list keeps getting decent hits. I’ll probably put out another one this year. My intention here is to drift into more expensive waters. Oh, I know that when one talks about whiskies worth this kind of money, you’re still in crap territory – every time I go into KGM or WP or any of the boutique-wannabes, the really nice stuff is almost always north of three figures. I see [Click here for the full review…]

Karukera Rhum Vieux Reserve Speciale – Review

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Mar 242012

Karukera Rhum Vieux Reserve Speciale - Review

A generally unimpressive agricole aged five years, better as a mixer than a sipping rum. I imagine its older brothers will be better (if I can ever lay my hands on one). Karukera strikes me, from the dearth of any kind of hard information on it (even on its own website), as a boutique wannabe rum, something made on an relatively limited basis by an outfit seeking to build a more international sales on the back of its appeal to connoisseurs appreciating its limited production (and based on the unique characteristics of the terroire). This should, however, not dissuade you [Click here for the full review…]

Dos Maderas PX 5+5 Rum – Review

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Mar 232012

First posted March 23, 2012 on Liquorature. Dos Maderas 5+5 follows on from the middling 5+3 underproofed variation, and is in all ways a better rum. Better body, better nose, better taste, better finish. It takes everything the former did and takes such a sharp left turn on it, that you might be forgiven for thinking it’s an utterly different product, made by another company that stole part of the recipe and then ran off the reservation with it. Just sitting there on your table top and opening up in your glass, the 5+5 is a thudding smack of cheery [Click here for the full review…]

Rum Nation Demerara 1985 23 Year Old Rum – Review

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Mar 172012

Rum Nation Demerara 1985 23 Year Old Rum - Review

First published March 17th, 2012 on Liquorature This rum fits on my collection like an expensive Italian suit. I don’t really need it, but bought it just the same. For how could I not? It’s actually better than the RN Jamaican 25 year old. To let my humour and attitude slip just a bit: I gotta be honest, people, and admit that every now and then I get bored with rums. Another day, another dollar, another new rum to dissect. “The Cussmander Distillery’s new Rambunctious Rum has a standard proofing of 40% topped by a (yawn) rubber cap, and a [Click here for the full review…]

Rum Nation Jamaica 1985 Supreme Lord V 25 YO Rum (Long Pond)- Review

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Mar 172012

Rum Nation Jamaica 1985 Supreme Lord V 25 YO Rum (Long Pond)- Review

An Italian outfit takes on the big boys from Scotland in grand style with a 25 year old of stunning originality and quality. The Rum Nation Specially Selected Jamaica 1985 25 year old (also known as the Supreme Lord V) is a limited bottling rum that is a big vaffanculo to the commercial establishment and hoi polloi of drinkers. No Model T of rums, not meant for the masses of drinkers and cocktail mixers, it’s a rapier, not a club. This rum was meant for people who really like ‘em, and especially appreciate rums that are rare, unique and as different from [Click here for the full review…]

Dos Maderas 5+3 Rum – Review

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Feb 202012

First published 20 February 2012 on Liquorature Dos Maderas 5+3 is a study in opposites, an examination into contrasting styles somehow coming together to produce something different from either. The rums are made in the so-called Spanish style based on ageing in sherry casks, yet have their origins in quintessential English style rums first created in Barbados and Guyana. The result is hamstrung by what to me is an utterly unnecessary dilution to 37.5%, and sinks what could otherwise have been quite an impressive product. (First posted February 19th, 2012) Dos Maderas (“Two Woods”) is a brand of the Spain-based [Click here for the full review…]

Raucous Rum Tasting 09 February 2012

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Feb 092012

*** Thursday February 9th restored some of my faith in the future of rums here in Calgary. The third Raucous Rums tasting event which I have now attended — hosted by Kensington Wine Market’s Andrew Ferguson — did not have the rather embarassing nine people in it, but was sold out for the full complement of tickets…in fact, several people I recommended it to who took me at my word and tried to get in, told me in the week leading up to the event that it had already been sold out prior to that. Good for KWM, then. [Click here for the full review…]

Cadenhead’s Green Label Panama 8 Year Old Rum – Review

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Feb 042012

Cadenhead’s Green Label Panama 8 Year Old Rum – Review

First published 4th February 2012 on Liquorature “Hi – we’re Cadenhead. We’re whisky makers doing rums on the side one cask at a time, and we’re stuck firmly in the last century. But we make some really crazy s**t that you know you want to try. Here…have a sip of this drag-strip devouring retro-cool V-12 high test. You’re gonna love it.” (First posted February 3rd, 2012) Comparing the Cadenhead philosophy with that of the giants like Bacard and Diageo is a little like comparing Terrence Malik films with Michael Bay’s, or a haiku with Paradise Lost. Instead of beating you over [Click here for the full review…]

Myer’s “Planter’s Punch” Dark Rum – review

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Jan 292012

Myer's "Planter's Punch" Dark Rum - review

Big, stompin’ rum maybe meant to be a mixed-drinks base but really good neat. Definitely helpful for getting loaded when dollars are tight; interesting when mixed in any number of cocktails. Feeling lonesome in some cold winter clime and miss the Ole Country? This will cure what ails you. First posted 29 January 2012 on Liquorature. I don’t always get top end rums like Barbancourt’s Estate Reserve 15 year old to try, and often, I don’t even want to try them. Sometimes, like most people who’ve had a hard week, I just kick back with a glass of hooch that makes no [Click here for the full review…]

Kōloa Kaua’i Gold Hawaiian Rum – Review

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Jan 292012

Impressive sipping-quality light rum from a region you’d almost expect to have many more darker variations. If your tastes run into the stronger and more distinct profiles, this may be a bit too subtle, being more more shy in its release than most. But it is well worth it. First posted 29 January 2012 on Liquorature Most of us drink rum originating from the West Indies that are aged in oak barrels, and so we make certain assumptions about our taste profiles: this is why, when we come across a rum from India (Old Port deluxe), Australia (Bundaberg), the Phillipines [Click here for the full review…]

Rhum Barbancourt Estate Reserve 15 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 202012

Rhum Barbancourt Estate Reserve 15 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 20th January 2012 on Liquorature. A rum for those who like cognacs and somewhat lighter fare without the heaviness or sweeter full-bodied physiques of the darker variants. Rewards some patience, because it does not reveal its secrets lightly, and will require you to go back to it a few times before appreciating it for what it is: a drink both subtle and supple, spicy and sere. Nice. These days, if Haiti is known for anything, it’s for its poverty, political strife (and the 2010 earthquake). Rums are almost an afterthought, yet Barbancourt is there, and has been since [Click here for the full review…]

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