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 (1990s blend) – Review

 1 Response »
Jan 252010
 
D'Aguiar's XM 5 Year Old Rum (1990s blend) - 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

 6 Responses »
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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