u/orehnmadgib

Alambique Serrano Single Cask #296
N: cinnamon and allspice and longpepper in strawberry syrup, melon rind, licorice, a peculiar sort of wood
P: all the same spices but greener, rawer, stemmier. Long, sappy, spicy-resinous finish 
83

Alambique Serrano Vida Nativa Single Cask #1 Cañamazo
N: straight allspice. We’re talkin St. Elizabeth’s 
P: some dark oaky tannins but pretty much ditto
81

Velier Flag Series Guyana 24 year 1998
N: pencil shavings and graphite, boozy berries but some crisp apple and mango too, medium oak, some superglue. A few drops of water and the sawdust really takes off. With more air, some fruity molasses
P: at first I thought this was less estery on the nose than the Cambodia, but it’s more so on the palate, and decidedly hotter too. Balsa wood model with dried glue. Pencils, paper, peppery spice, and some fruit but not as much as the nose had. With water: more focus, sharper spice, more acidic
87

Velier Flag Series Cambodia 8 year 2016 (48.7%)
Never had this distillate before and don’t remember anything I read in tasting notes, so other than the states and tropical aging, I have no idea what to expect
N: glue, and some solvent, and newspaper. Not a bad start, though this side of it fades with air. Not a ton of fruit, certainly less than I had imagined, but some sweet spice cooked into brown sugar. Damp wood. Maple
P: pretty assertive for 48%. Glue gun, brown spice, a bit of cooked banana, maple candy. Sweeter with time and air, but never too much so
Drinks very well at this strength, doesn’t need water
84

These rums are obviously intended for mixing and drink better in Ti Punch than they do as sippers, so reviewing them this way is unfair in a sense. But I like sipping unaged agricole and it’s at least worth considering them this way.

St James Fleur de Canne (50%)
N: sweet, nutty cane funk, lime peel, kinda woolly with some chamomille. With an ice cube, a little funkier and even more woolly
P: a little weak, simple, and a little too sweet, but pretty tasty for all that. Some pepper and finishes on that wooliness again. Ice has a similar effect here as on the nose but unfortunately it also suffers from further reduction and becomes more neutral
81

Trois Rivières Cuvee de l’Ocean (43%)
N: almond and cane again but more sour lime, some brine even. With ice: more focused, slightly animalistic
P: brighter than the St James, with more acid and some pepper and ginger and quite a strong note of bay leaf, but similarly watery (this is 7% lower abv but they feel comparable side by side). A pinch of salt on the finish but with a name like this I want more maritime character… Interestingly, while the St James felt drier with ice, this feels sweeter, and some of that brightness fades. Similarly too weak to really handle the reduction as a sipper, but there does emerge a chlorine note that I like
82

Oui Vie XO Cognac
It’s a small bottle, not a huge glass…
N: Rainier cherries and cherry wood, red and yellow flowers, modest rancio
P: weak in the palate, but not unattractive. Sweet cinnamon, yellow cherry-banana fruit, lighter notes of rosewood, cedar, varnish, mild rancio 
I got this for free in a Cognac Expert Black Friday promotion where you spend a ton of money on cognac and they give you a bottle of this. It probably has additives, sugar at least, but frankly this is better than any of the standard, big house XOs, and while I wouldn’t recommend anyone spend $100+ to get it, I’m happy to drink it after I’ve blasted my palate with a bunch of other spirits for a few hours
81

Clarendon 22 year 2000 Rum Sponge (refill rum barrel, 44.3%)
N: such a beautiful mix of fruity-funky esters and maritime character. Seaweed washed up on the beech, capers, Meyer lemon, sandalwood, brine, the exterior of a pineapple…so delicate but so aromatic
P: beautifully coastal, sunny without heat or excessive ripeness, the aromatics but not the juice of pineapple, joined by some orchard fruit here (pickled apple? Is that a thing?), along with some pepper and, I dunno, dried ginger? An interesting spirit in that the alcohol is quite low and it’s not almost gulpable, but it doesn’t feel weak or watery; it drinks almost more like a strong wine than a weak spirit. Very light wood influence for a 22 year spirit, definitely more like a mild spice than anything “oaky” or tannic. I almost never pair spirits with food but this does seem like one you could drink with fried scallops or something
Way up my alley. Give me all the old, minimally oaked, coastal rums…
88

The other day I found a box of agave spirit samples I bought a few years ago, had a few of, and forgot about. Got home from eating at a Mexican restaurant tonight and was trying to decide what to pour and this seemed to make sense!

Arquitecto Blanco
N: least sweet and most savory of the lineup, brightest, rather herbal with salt and green chilies ground in a molcajete, faint veggies, some hard fruit candy too
P: definitely the driest and brightest, there’s some cane syrup nutty fruit against a good amount of green herb and (raw, not cooked) green veggies. With ice: some mixed fruit candy as a supporting note. This is the most multi-dimensional of the flight, and the best
84

Don Fulano Blanco
N: funkier esters here, compost and vomit even, hospital. With ice: still vomit, some grass
P: again this has a pretty distinct stale/dried vomit character, which fades into sterilized latex and medicine. Better by the end of the mouthfeel than the beginning, for sure. Despite the aromatics I’m missing the salt and acid to make this feel lively, and the nose is just offputting. With ice: a little nicer, but still doesn’t make up for the nose
75

El Tequileno Blanco
N: cooked veggies, ripe fruit (browned apple, cooked pineapple, some berries), tajin. With ice: tajin, yes
P: relatively acidic, fruit and veggies that are both cooked/ripe but slightly fermenty/sour too, and some dried chili spice again. With ice: everything brighter, sharper, definitely a better sipping situation
83

Arette Blanco
N: sweet, salted, boiled peanuts. Some milky, just caramelized sugar. With ice: even more boiled peanut
P: hmm the boiled peanuts are back but there’s something almost stale like wet cardboard. With ice: still just boiled peanuts and wet paper.
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No original picture because I had to strain and decant this into a neutral glass bottle the first time I opened it and the cork fell apart into the bottle.

Clement 1970
N: a concentration of dried fruit, nuts, and herbs that puts the JM 1845 I just had entirely to shame. A Port-like intensity of sultanas and dried cherries, dense minty oak, some farmy stuff (manure) in the background, some glue. With air some caramel and blackberry
P: not as dried fruit heavy as the nose, but neither is it especially tannic or overly wood-driven (time and air has helped in that regard; I did find it too woody when I first opened this, especially compared to the 1976). It’s low proof admittedly, but rewards larger mouthfuls with loads of minty toothpaste, chewed up gum, toasted nuts, and just the right amount of wood char for a spirit of this age. Ceylon cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg emerge. 
One can and should complain about spirits of this quality bottled at this proof, and about bottles that now cost closer to four figures than two which ask to be consumed in large mouthfuls because of that proof. Regardless, it’s fantastic
91

Rhum JM 1845
N: peppermint, drying oak with hints of vanilla and caramel but primarily a greener character, you could mistake this for a well aged high rye bourbon
P: overall somewhat bourbony again but with a very strong green, herbal/mint character, and pretty dry. Some nuts on the finish, and an aftertaste of banana, though there was little fruit in the palate. Too soft at 42%, but that’s pretty normal for aged JM bottlings

For whatever reason I’ve had fairly different experiences with different pours of this, at least in terms of how much I liked it, and not in a way that really tracks with a linear evolution in bottle. In any case it’s a good gateway rum for bourbon drinkers, and a pretty good pour in general; certainly not the worst premium Cuvee I’ve had from a silly fancy bottle.
83

Rhum JM White 100 proof
N: sour, mushy, ripe fruit and grassy cane sugar. Smells like a Ti punch before you even make it into one. Lime and mango and banana a few days into composting
P: sweet, floral, potting soil, pretty heavy acid too though and all that fruit again, more as a team player now and not as composty. Some menthol and cut grass. Finishes on estery fruit again
83

Rhum JM Blanc Edition Limitee “Jungle” 2017 (51.2%)
N: not far different from the standard, but less fruit driven and even more cane sugar, with just a bit of floral and nutty character
P: the difference from the standard is perhaps more stark here. If that one suggests Ti Punch aromatics, this is more on orgeat, almonds and rose water and pinch of allspice.
85

These notes emphasize what’s different about the two, but they’re clearly siblings. I don’t know what’s actually different about the Jungle other than the label and slight bump in proof; I’d guess it’s essentially a different blend/batch of the same distillate. Both of them are delicious even neat, and excellent as a daiquiri/Ti Punch base. The Jungle is a bit more suited to neat sipping

Barbancourt 15 (old label)
Bottle purchased maybe around 2010?
N: light everything: light oak, light caramel, light nuts, light copper, light sweetness, very lightly floral, light mouthfeel, light acidity…
P: first off, the reduction is too much for a spirit that’s already this light. It’s watery. But it’s nice anyway, pleasantly sweet with pale nuts and flower water, orgeat-adjacent, moreish and likeable. I really appreciate a cane juice rum with this much age, this little oak, this much restraint—for sure, I appreciate it more now than I did when I bought the bottle
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