Ten Decent Rums (Roughly) Under $100

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Mar 312012
 
Ten Decent Rums (Roughly) Under $100

* 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
 
Dos Maderas PX 5+5 Rum - Review

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
 
Dos Maderas 5+3 Rum - Review

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
 
Raucous Rum Tasting 09 February 2012

***   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
 
Kōloa Kaua'i Gold Hawaiian Rum - Review

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…]


Ron Viejo de Caldas Añejo 8 años – Review

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Jan 062012
 
Ron Viejo de Caldas Añejo 8 años - Review

A low proof rum that is impressive right out of the gate, suggests quality and subtlety past compare, and then gives up and runs full tilt into the wall. What this rum might have been with some extra strength….     First posted 6th January 2012 on Liquorature.  Right off the bat I have to state my preferences: I am not a fan of underproofs. They have a fake air of smoothness that has less to do with a blender’s art than with a low alcohol content. Spirit imparts depth and character to a rum (as I have observed with [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Abuelo 12 Year Old Rum – Review

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Dec 182011
 
Ron Abuelo 12 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 18th December 2011 on Liquorature. Much as I like the Ron Abuelo 12, I must concede that somehow, by a subtle mismatch of flavour, nose, body, complexity and overall profile, this otherwise excellent rum just fails to attain greatness.  That’s not to say this is not a really good product, because it is – and at a price most of us can afford, you wouldn’t go wrong adding it to your shelf. The middle tiers, that is. One problem with liking a rum is that the rum as a rule doesn’t really like you back. In fact, the [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Abuelo Añejo 7 Year Old Rum – Review

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Dec 182011
 
Ron Abuelo Añejo 7 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 18 December 2011 on Liquorature. Better than the Ron Abuelo 12 year old, if not quite as smooth.  As a general rule, the older a rum is, the better it’s supposed to be, and price points certainly follow on from that. We pay extra money for the ageing, the loss the maker suffers from the angel’s share, the supposed care and expertise taken in blending and smoothening out all the aged components so as to balance out the oakiness. So you’d think the older the rum, the better, right? Not so in this case. In fact, I reviewed [Click here for the full review…]


Potter’s Traditional Navy Dark Rum – Review

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Nov 232011
 
Potter's Traditional Navy Dark Rum - Review

  First posted 23rd November 2011 on Liquorature A dark navy rum that starts slow and nasty and evolves into a most amazingly flavourful product, and which can even be tolerated by the masochistic as a drink to sip on its own. Honesty forces me to confess that the only reason I bought this rum was because Keenan and I had had it in local pub on a wing night and we couldn’t believe what a powerful deep-tasting mixer it made. Seeing it the other day in a shop, I snapped it up, and I have to tell you, for [Click here for the full review…]


Traveller’s 1 Barrel Rum – Review

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Nov 062011
 
Traveller's 1 Barrel Rum - Review

A medium-bodied golden rum with nose and plalate and finish all a cut above the normal – if this is what Belize can make with so little fanfare, we should all go and get ouselves some of their wares.  First posted 6th November 2011 on Liquorature Belize , formerly the British Honduras, is a small piece of the Yucatan peninsula (the eastern side), and a pleasant little parliamentary democracy where that staple of West Indian culture, cricket, is oddly absent (for shame). On the other hand, they are making a sterling little rumlet from one of the four distilleries in [Click here for the full review…]


Bundaberg Reserve Rum – Review

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Oct 092011
 
Bundaberg Reserve Rum - Review

First posted October 9th, 2011 on Liquorature I have a feeling I’m going to catch some flak for this review, of a rum I know many think is the bastard offspring of a low quality formaldehyde mixed with a crazy paint stripper and the stinking armpit of a sweaty canecutter at noon.  Short version – miles better than its low-bred coz from the sticks. Full disclosure: I absolutely detested the original low end Bundaberg Rum, and even Aussies with whom I’ve occasionally been in contact seem to despise the rum most indelibly linked with their land. It was a raw, nasty, [Click here for the full review…]


Momento Amber Rum – Review

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Oct 012011
 
Momento Amber Rum - Review

First posted 01 October 2011 on Liquorature A strange rum from Alberta’s Highwood Distillery, Momento is aimed at the high end market without having the cojones to put its quality where its marketing leads it.  It’s clean texture and originality of make are its best features, but I can’t say it really works for me. There are some cases where a distillery looking to go in a different direction begets some kind of bratty, youthful rum that dances on your tonsils and tries out its chubby biceps on your palate. Bruichladdich comes to mind, or the reblenders and rebranders like [Click here for the full review…]


St. Nicholas Abbey 12 year old rum – Review

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Sep 022011
 
St. Nicholas Abbey 12 year old rum - Review

First posted 2nd September 2011 on Liquorature A worthy successor to the 10 year old which was also expensive and extremely well made.  Succeeds, in my opinion, on just about every level: presentation, nose, taste, finish and aesthetics. This is the point where you start telling yourself maybe two hundred bucks may not really be that much to blow on a single rum…but ensure the spouse concurs. You’ve got to hand it to the Abbey.  Not being content to rest on their laurels with the very excellent 10 year old I was so taken by, they issued the dark gold [Click here for the full review…]


St. Nicholas Abbey 8 year old – Review

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Sep 022011
 
St. Nicholas Abbey 8 year old - Review

First posted 2nd September 2011 on Liquorature   Much as I loved the St Nicholas Abbey 10 year old (and I have yet to meet a soul who doesn’t like it), I must concede that the corresponding 8 year old is not in its league. This is not to say it’s a bad rum…just not as good as its older brother(s). And that’s a shame, because left on its own, had I never tasted any of the Abbey’s other products, I might have given my pen rein, gone to town with loads of colourful metaphors, and in all ways harped on [Click here for the full review…]


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