Cruzan Single Barrel Dark Rum – Review

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Apr 132010
 
Cruzan Single Barrel Dark Rum - Review

  First posted 13 April 2010 on Liquorature. Completely solid rum, that succeeds on many levels. Strong taste, well defined flavour profile, just enough sweet and a lovely dark body that doesn’t quit. Wow. A worthy addition to the shelf, to be doled out to real friends. Against the constant whine I make about rums not stating their proper age on the bottle (like some sly strumpet misrepresenting her quality), I have to concede that having a friend to not only help drink it but who’ll trot out his own cherished stocks to stretch out the binge is some small [Click here for the full review…]


Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva 15 year old rum – Review

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Mar 092010
 
Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva 15 year old rum - Review

  First posted 9th March 2010 on Liquorature. For some reason, the Last Hippie was absolutely enthralled by the label design* of this Venezuelan import when Pat trotted it out for the February 2010 get-together, rhapsodically comparing it to a postage stamp, nearly swooning over the originality of it all. It was the first time I ever saw a label nearly bring a Peathead over to the Light and have a shot of the good stuff, but it fell just short of the mark, alas and perhaps embarrassed by his untoward display of emotion, he retreated to the other Scottish [Click here for the full review…]


Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 Year Solera Rum – Review

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Feb 272010
 
Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 Year Solera Rum - Review

First posted 27th February, 2010 on Liquorature. Having friends who will trot out cherished stocks of the good stuff for me to taste and comment on is always a plus. Having those who share my interests in rum, and pick up obscure bottles from odd distilleries in faraway places is even better. Granted every now and then one runs across paint thinner or liquified rat turds masquerading as rum, but in the main, the odds work in my favour. Still, though, I’ve had to take a leaf out of the Last Hippie’s book and always have a notebook on hand. [Click here for the full review…]


Bundaberg Rum – Review

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Feb 272010
 
Bundaberg Rum - Review

  First posted February 27, 2010 on Liquorature. (#014)(Unscored) Holy antipodean molasses, Batman: what the hell is this? Years from now, old farts will be discussing their first great love or hate of rum, and this one will surely make the short list. You either embrace this vile sipper or despise it for its difference, but you’ll never be indifferent, that’s for sure. *** Full of hope and expectations, Keenan and I traded rums over the table yesterday – in his direction went the El Dorado 21 year old (I had really wanted him to sample it since his snoot is more [Click here for the full review…]


Pusser’s “Nelson’s Blood” Blue Label – Review

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Feb 252010
 
Pusser's "Nelson's Blood" Blue Label - Review

First posted 25 February 2010 on Liquorature. (#012)(Unscored) *** There’s surprisingly little hard information about Pusser’s “Nelson’s Blood” Navy Rum aside from the bare bones history and some folklore about the rum itself. For example, the bottle I bought said nothing about the age, nor did any catalogue or webpage discuss it at length except to refer to its origins. And when, as noted before, there is a scarcity of expert salespeople to discuss your selection with, well, I guess I had to take a flier and buy it based on rarity – I had never seen it before – [Click here for the full review…]


Coruba Dark Jamaica Rum – Review

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Feb 252010
 
Coruba Dark Jamaica Rum - Review

First posted 25 February 2010 on Liquorature. (#011)(Unscored) Short, sharp sword to the guts when had neat, this rum is without question something to use as a mix and not to risk taking alone. Needs refinement to be taken seriously, but since it’s cheap as all get-out, it does have a perverse attraction on that basis alone. Go for it if you’re feeling a bit brave today. *** This is another one of those reviews that I wrote in order to give some weight to the Single Digit Rums. Having tasted it, shuddered and reached for the coke, I can [Click here for the full review…]


Young’s Old Sam Demerara Rum – Review

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Feb 252010
 
Young’s Old Sam Demerara Rum – Review

First posted 25th February 2010 on Liquorature; (#004)(Unscored) Young, rambunctious and strong of nose and taste. It is the epitome of a low ranking Demerara rum, with powerful scents and tastes lacking in anything remotely resembling complexity: and yet, I really kinda like it. Perhaps because it’s a simple creation of such primary flavours. It’s not meant for taking neat, but as a mixer? Yummo. *** The bottle of Old Sam I tasted is a “single digit rum” whose ingredients come from the Old Country, where the primary distillation takes place in DDLs facilities — these are the gentlemen who make the [Click here for the full review…]


Pyrat’s XO Reserve 15 Yr Old Rum – Review

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Feb 252010
 
Pyrat's XO Reserve 15 Yr Old Rum - Review

First posted 25 February 2010 on Liquorature Short version – too much orange peel and marmalade flavours mar an otherwise reasonable rum. It may sound sacrilegious to even mention this 15 year old product of Anguilla in the same breath as Bundie, but when you think about it, Bundaberg is without question one of the unique rums in the world: one may despise it and spit after mentioning its name, but there’s no denying it stays with you. It’s like the dark reflection of the EH25. And Pyrat (pronounced “pirate”) is another one like that which, love it or hate [Click here for the full review…]


El Dorado Special Reserve 21 Year Old – Review

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Feb 192010
 
El Dorado Special Reserve 21 Year Old - Review

First posted Feb 19, 2010 on Liquorature. Deep, smooth, elegant, complex, affordable. Brilliant rum catering to all my tastes. It seems to be a cruel irony that I always find the rums I desperately want to buy and take a taste of when (a) my frugal better half is casting baleful glares in my direction, (b) my friend The Bear is unavailable to assist in the sampling and (c) cash is short…or at least, pay day is nowhere in sight, which amounts to the same thing. All three were in evidence this Friday, when, for reasons we shall not get [Click here for the full review…]


Classifying Rum

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Feb 132010
 

(First posted on Liquorature, February 2010. Lightly edited December 2014, August 2015, July 2017 and March 2022 – however, the article is now dated and should be regarded as a backgrounder to how classifications were regarded in 2009-2010, not now. Issues of classification remain thorny and are hotly contested: the issue requires another pass, even if only to sum up the developments). In my wasted youth, those with more discerning palates often confused my rather simple mind with their scientific analyses of their spirits, making sober statements about bouquet, oiliness, finish, colour, nose, mouthfeel, texture, blah blah blah. I was [Click here for the full review…]


English Harbour 5 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 302010
 
English Harbour 5 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 30 January 2010 on Liquorature. (#010)(Unscored) *** Wow! What a surprisingly mellow, well rounded piece of work this was. English Harbour is aged a minimum of five years in whiskey or bourbon barrels, but there was none of the whiskey taste that so characterizes the Renegade product line, which I have gone on record as not really appreciating. This stuff is good for its age and price. For the gathering of January 2010, it was the nominated rum alongside two whiskeys, and, to everyone’s surprise, this thing held up against older, more expensive drinks and was the first [Click here for the full review…]


Appleton Estate 12 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 252010
 
Appleton Estate 12 Year Old Rum - Review

  First posted January 25, 2010 on Liquorature. (#005)(Unscored) The first of the mid-range Appletons where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. From here, Appleton gets out into sipping territory, and it’s worth the extra you fork out for it. *** As I may have mentioned, Appleton is a Jamaican classic. Part of J. Wray & Nephew, which has been making rum since 1749, Appleton takes its name from the island’s largest sugar cane plantation. It’s become a sort of standard for me here in Calgary: I buy a massive mulit-litre jug of the V/X when [Click here for the full review…]


Renegade Trinidad 1991 16 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 252010
 
Renegade Trinidad 1991 16 Year Old Rum - Review

  First posted 25 January 2010 on Liquorature. (#009)(Unscored) *** I’m not always and entirely a fan of Renegade Rum, but will unhesitatingly concede that they are among the most interesting ones currently available, and deserve to be sampled. Un-chill filtered at the Bruichladdich Distillery on the Isle of Islay in Scotland, these limited editions have the potential to popularize single-vintage rum if one can get past the whiskey-like finish that jars somewhat with what I expect a rum to be. My research notes that Renegade Rums trawls the Caribbean estates for traditional single distilleries that are no longer in [Click here for the full review…]


Renegade Jamaica 2000 8 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 252010
 
Renegade Jamaica 2000 8 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 25 January 2010 on Liquorature. (#008)(Unscored) *** The Renegade line of rums is as clear a statement as any, that packaging sells: their bottles are so curiously different that one is almost compelled to take a closer look when one sees them on the shelves…and having seen, the itch to go spend some cash becomes an incessant feeling that must be assuaged. Or so I felt when I first saw them: that frosted glass bottle with the rich copper-bronze liquid swirling heavily within just makes me burn to blow some bucks, honestly. And it wasn’t a poor purchase [Click here for the full review…]


Flor de Caña Centenario 18 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 252010
 
Flor de Caña Centenario 18 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 25 January 2010 on Liquorature. (#007)(Unscored) *** Memory fails as to who introduced me to this Nicaraguan gem. I have a feeling it was Dougie from the office when he went down there. I was initially a bit doubtful, but since I was trying to scare up some good stuff for the first non-whiskey night of Liquorature, which thus far had been exclusively a Scottish binge, I felt it was necessary to pull out the stops: I had already bought the Appleton Master’s Blend and the Zaya, and this one’s price point fell somewhere in between. The oldest [Click here for the full review…]


D’Aguiar’s XM 5 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 252010
 
D'Aguiar's XM 5 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 25 January 2010 on Liquorature. Full disclosure: this review is based on rum made (and drunk) 1995 and earlier and retasted in the 2000s in a social setting. The review is more a nostalgia essay with such memories as I retained and wanted to share, of one of the formative rums of my youth, than a true review (#006 / Unscored) *** When I was living in the Old Country, this baby was the rum I drank every Friday for a decade straight (or more) without fail, and on quite a few days in between. My evenings tended [Click here for the full review…]


Cadenhead’s Classic Green Label Rum – Review

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Jan 192010
 
Cadenhead's Classic Green Label Rum - Review

  First posted January 19th, 2010 on Liquorature. It looks like a rum and occasionally smells like one, but it sure doesn’t always feel like one; Cadenhead’s policy of making the Classic without any additives or subsequent filtering gives it a less voluptuous body than the average and an overall whisky character that only a psychologist could unravel. Decent drink for those who like a little danger and seeing how rums can go to the edge, though. *** This is as strange a rum as I’ve ever had, and was a selection of the November 2009 gathering, where nothing but [Click here for the full review…]


Zaya 12 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 192010
 
Zaya 12 Year Old Rum - Review

First posted 19th January 2010 on Liquorature. (#002)(Unscored) Surprisingly similar to the Zacapa 23…silky, sweet, smooth, supple, and a great drink by itself. *** This review is being written in January 2010 (and amended again in April), but we actually had this phenomenal rum for the first time in April 2009, the first time I hosted the Club. A nippy night as I recall, and iconoclastic as always, I obstinately refused to get whisky, and loudly blared to all and sundry that it would be a rum night (and so started a peculiar tradition of Liquorature, which is that the [Click here for the full review…]


English Harbour 1981 25 Year Old Rum – Review

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Jan 022010
 
English Harbour 1981 25 Year Old Rum - Review

This was for me, for many years, one of the top five commercially available rums in the world. Not to be missed, even for the price. Four stars, triple A, I don’t care what you call it, this thing is simply awesome. First posted on Liquorature, January 2010. After gathering a ton of notes on rums from all points if the compass for most of 2009, it seemed appropriate to begin my official rum reviews with what is arguably the best – and the second-most expensive – rum I’ve ever tasted to this point in January 2010. Now I cheerfully admit [Click here for the full review…]


Welcome to The Lone Caner

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Jan 012010
 
Welcome to The Lone Caner

The Lone Caner originated in a book and spirits club called Liquorature, of which the Caner is a founding member. This site is geared towards rum reviews that people (hopefully) stop over to check out, before dropping big bucks on sterling products. Or minor bucks on so-so products. Or maybe just to read something interesting. That is, after all, how it all started, and it’s been a long, fascinating journey with no end in sight. For more information, see the “About” tab at the top of this page. Have fun, and enjoy. Share this… Facebook Threads Twitter Bluesky Reddit Messenger [Click here for the full review…]


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