Rum: More than 100 of the world’s best rums

Antiguo de Solera

PRODUCER: Santa Teresa

AREA OF ORIGIN: Estada Aragua, Venezuela

VARIETY: Dark rum

ABV: 40.0%

WEBSITE: www.ronsantateresa.com

Considered by many to be the world’s best South American Rum, Antiguo de Solera is just that – an aged rum produced through a solera system, where rum is taken away for filling from the bottom of the solera, and new rum is added at the top.

The distillery is unique. It rehabilitates former gang members when they are released from prison, and gives them the means to work hard to turn their lives around – and it encourages them to play rugby, of all things.

The rum is extraordinarily complex and rounded, with notes of tobacco smoke, leather, dark chocolate and honey.

A world-class operation in all respects.

Appleton Estate 21 Year Old

PRODUCER: Gruppo Campari

AREA OF ORIGIN: Nassau Valley, Jamaica

VARIETY: Dark rum

ABV: 43.0%

WEBSITE: www.appletonestate.com

The age on a bottle of spirits can mean various things. In the case of single malt whisky, the age refers to the youngest whisky in the bottle; even one drop of a young whisky and that is its age. But other spirits have looser definitions. Appleton Estate 21 Year Old, though, adamantly follows the single malt route, and contains rums that are at least 21 years old. Most of the rum was matured and the time in the oak gives some delicious tannin spice and oaky notes. But there are some exquisite flavours of vanilla, cocoa and orange. As a result, this is a fabulous sipping rum and doesn’t need mixing. It is described as ‘just brilliant’ by one leading online retailer.

Appleton Rare Blend 12 Year Old

PRODUCER: Gruppo Campari

AREA OF ORIGIN: Nassau Valley, Jamaica

VARIETY: Golden rum

ABV: 43.0%

WEBSITE: www.appletonestate.com

Campari spent much of the second decade of the new millennium building a portfolio of drinks businesses, and earned industry respect by taking a hands-off approach, providing the necessary funds to allow the spirits makers to do what they do best – make great drinks. Appleton, based on an estate in the heart of Jamaica, puts a big emphasis on terroir (the whole environment a drink is produced in, including weather, geography, etc.), arguing that its rums are unique due to the sugarcane that it grows itself, and the limestone spring that supplies its water. Rare Blend 12 Year Old is a blend of different rums from the estate, most of them matured in 180-litre American oak barrels. This is smooth, sweet and not as oaky as you might expect, given the age of the spirits.

Bacardi Carta Blanca

PRODUCER: Bacardi Brown Forman

AREA OF ORIGIN: Puerto Rico

VARIETY: White rum

ABV: 37.5%

WEBSITE: www3.bacardi.com

Familiarity can breed contempt but this rum is a success because of its quality. This is the world famous version of Bacardi, the one seen in tens of thousands of bars, and there are very good reasons for its global success. White rums were considered to be harsh, crude, and unrefined until they were reinvented by the company’s founder, Don Facundo, who introduced charcoal filtration to remove the rum’s impurities, and oak-ageing to smooth the raw edges of the spirit and produce a mellow, clear, white rum. This is a perfectly good rum, but it is deliberately smooth and unchallenging – and this might not appeal to serious rum drinkers.

Bacardi Gran Reserva Maestro de Ron

PRODUCER: Bacardi Brown Forman

AREA OF ORIGIN: Puerto Rico

VARIETY: Premium white rum

ABV: 40.0%

WEBSITE: www3.bacardi.com

Bacardi doesn’t sit on its laurels, and over the years has launched different bottlings for different audiences. This Gran Reserva is a brave and confident take on super premium rum, and is an attempt to encourage rum to be sipped. Launched into travel retail, it has been well received. It is said to be inspired by a recipe passed down through generations of master blenders using a slow-filtering of the blended rum – aged up to three years – through a coconut shell charcoal, creating a smooth rum. The colour from this process has been stripped out, and presumably some of the flavour has, but this is still great: fruity, floral, and with vanilla notes and hints of walnut, oak and almond. Overall it is mellow, with slightly sweet notes.

Bacardi Superior Ron Heritage

PRODUCER: Bacardi Brown Forman

AREA OF ORIGIN: Puerto Rico

VARIETY: Premium white rum

ABV: 44.5%

WEBSITE: www3.bacardi.com

This is a very limited expression of Bacardi, with only 7,500 cases being released in 2009. It marks the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Daiquiri in America. The cocktail was created in Cuba using Bacardi as its base, as the company was still based there in 1909. This is said to be a recreation of the original Bacardi, and it comes in a replica of the original bottle from that time. The rum itself is a richer, fuller rum than Bacardi’s current standard rum, and is bottled at the same strength as it was in 1909. This is a tasty rum that can be drunk over ice. You’ll find cinnamon and other spices, baked apple and sweet pear.

Basseterre Guadeloupe 1995

PRODUCER: Montebello / Carrère

AREA OF ORIGIN: Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe

VARIETY: Dark rum

ABV: 58.2%

WEBSITE: www.facebook.com/RhumMontebello

Guadeloupe has several respected rum distillers and this one – called Carrère but better known as Montebello – is one of the best. It was founded in 1930 and has been thriving ever since. With about 25 employees, it is not a small distillery, but all of the fermentation, distillation, ageing, and bottling is done under the close supervision of the Marsolle family. The estate has only 15 hectares of cane today, so most of the year-old cane is bought from farmers in the Petit-Bourg area. Beautifully packaged and very much at the premium end of the rum market, Basseterre Guadeloupe was distilled at Montebello in 1995. A blend of agricole and molasses rums bottled at cask strength, this has notes of cumin, liquorice and lemon.

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