Tasting 50 Year Old Rum

Life is full of twists and turns. Sometimes they are good, at times they are bad. Thanks to a variety of these I’ve put rum on the 3^rd row for a while. Actually, more likely the 7^th row. Moving houses is one of the things that’s keeping me pretty occupied. The prospect of living somewhere else is great, but packing and unpacking is definitely not my favourite hobby, certainly not when hundreds of rum bottles need to be stored somewhere safely. I’m now living in my house without lots of rum around me, which is a strange situation. Apart from being busy, my rum mojo has decreased a little as well. One reason for that is my Rum Revelations FB page getting hacked. Despite many efforts in trying to get it back through META, I still have no access. It’s been almost a year. Very frustrating. When one of your main platforms of communication is taken away, it kind of dampens the mood. Getting back stabbed and thrown out of the Ministry of rum FB group is another reason. Getting axed from it had no impact on Rum Revelations, as the visitor numbers remained steady. Social media is not where most readers are coming from. I didn’t care about it when it happened. Over time I did start realizing that I miss chatting about rum. It’s something I’ve enjoyed immensely over the years and that particular group is the only one with a good number of active members. C’est la vie.

What prompted me to write this today is something Serge Valentin posted on his website. He said that in an online group “a handful of anonymous posters had taken the opportunity to express some fairly critical, and at times rather sharp (right, insulting), opinions about this small website and one of our humble rum posts.” This is just a short quote, as I don’t want him to sue me. Then again, I think the French are more about striking than suing. What he’s basically describing is temporarily losing his rum mojo because of a few (anonimous) keyboard warriors. I’m assuming this happened on Reddit. The anonimous nature of its members is one of the reasons why I quit that site after being on it for a few weeks only. No level playing field whatsoever. I have disagreed with his reviews enough times that I know our palates don’t match. My short first impression….he seems to love anything high ester and is less fond of delicate rums. I’m less into high ester (despite Jamaica being my favourite rum country) and have much less tolerance for oak than he does. This doesn’t mean his reviews are crap though. We simply have different palates and preferences. That is not a good reason at all to start insulting someone. However, that’s the reality of putting yourself out there on the internet. Serge only writes reviews. I write opinion pieces, rum travel stories, reviews, backgrounds about rums and distilleries. Imagine the puke I’ve had to deal with from keyboard warriors over the years. My skin is rather thick, but at times it can take the fun out of something you are doing for fun. So I get him. 

The thing that will make him forget about all this very quickly is the fact that he’s the only rum blogger/reviewer who has actual influence. Nobody, including myself, can claim to have that without getting laughed at, except for Serge. He has a huge following, which includes producers who take him seriously (partly because of the huge following no doubt). I understand why. He is knowledgeable about what he tastes, has an incredible talent for writing his thoughts down in a short, witty way and has been doing this for many years. It’s fun to read and in that sense the opposite of people who choose the popular whisky novel style to write reviews. You know, something like:”succulent grilled pineapple with a hint of apricot jam, sprinkled with diamond shaped pieces of toasted chocolate covered marshmallows”. I don’t have talent for either approach, but it is what it is. My mom would say “you are good at other things”. Thanks mom!

The good news is that I haven’t stopped tasting rum. The tasting is the easy part, the writing the harder part, as it takes so much time.

Today is about Cuban rum. Not just any Cuban rum. A 21 year old and a 50 year old! What??? 50???

Let’s start with the grandpa of the two. Distilled in 1973, it has apparently spent 50 years ageing in Cuba. Bottled by German company Spheric Spirits. No clues on the web in regards to the distillery, other than it being in the south eastern part of the island. The abv of 52% is pretty high for such an old rum. At 500 euro a bottle it doesn’t come cheap, which makes sense. Imagine the evaporation levels during 50 years in a barrel in a warm climate. They must have combined several barrels over the years to end up with this one. I received a sample from our favourite retailer at zeewijck.nl.

I had never heard of Spheric Spirits. After a quick 10 minute internet search I still don’t know what they are about. Their website offers as good as no info. The low tech nature of it and the year 2020 on it made me think they were out of business. However, their Instagram has more recent posts on it. They seem to be mostly into whisky (as per usual). There are posts about agave spirits and gin. Rum seems to be a thing on the side (also as per usual). Looks like the guys do a lot of spirit travel to learn and get involved with local producers, which is very cool. Other than that, no clue.

The second rum is from Golden Devil, aka Kill Devil. Hunter Laing can’t use the Kill Devil name in the US because of trademark issues. It’s a 21 year old rum that was bottled for large US retailer K&L Wines. Since the US has an embargo on Cuban products, they couldn’t label this as a Cuban rum. Hence why it’s called “Caribbean”. It was distilled in 1999 at the Sancti Spiritus distillery and bottled at 58.5%. I’ve had this in my sample library for years, which is why I can’t remember which generous American soul gave it to me.    

Nosing

Golden Devil Caribbean 21 yr

Very vanilla forward, nutmeg, oak, honey, molasses, light licorice, caramel, pineapple, banana. Gives me a little bit of a Jamaican vibe.

Spheric Spirits Cuba 1973

Wax, light paint, oak, hint of orange, strawberry, light plastic, dark chocolate, molasses, wet soggy wood, slight sour oak note. Has a bit of a Fiji vibe to it.

Tasting

Golden Devil Caribbean 21 yr

Vanilla, light acetone, banana, pineapple, quite oaky. Starts off very sweet and finishes very dry. A little on the thin side and too heavy on vanilla. Finish is fairly long and dry with oaky vanilla and nutmeg.

Spheric Spirits Cuba 1973

Much thicker mouthfeel than the Golden Devil. Caramel, oak, hint of wax, tobacco, light licorice, red wine, leather, hint of paint. It’s so thick that I want to bite it. Finish is long, thick, sweet and wonderful.

Conclusion

I’ve never been into Cuban rum much. The reason is that I find a lot of them are on the thin side and sweetened. Usually quite light and easy going, which is not what I prefer. I enjoy digging into a bold spirit and being marveled by the many layers and secret doors to different taste passages. Even better when it changes every time you put the glass down, leave it for a few minutes and then go back to it. It’s like having a continuous stream of birthday gifts. I can almost equally enjoy a well made velvety, delicate rum like Foursquare Principia for example. However, I find a lot of Cuban rums are neither. That doesn’t mean there are exceptions of course. The problem for me is being in Canada, where the rum selection is poor. Yes, I can get Havana Club here (yawn!). So whenever I travel abroad, I have to make tough choices on what to bring. Choosing between a Cuban rum that might be decent and a release from New Yarmouth is rather easy. Where it gets tough is when you go to a liquor store that has New Yarmouth, Mhoba, Hampden, St James, Neisson, Foursquare, Savanna, Worthy Park………you know that type of rum paradise. All of a sudden the wallet and suitcase seem way too small!

Drinking 50 year old rum is a privilege in my book. If you’ve been reading my articles for a while though you’ll know I’m not into very woody spirits and tend to prefer the ones 15 years and younger, including unaged spirits (ask me about my experience at Bowmore distillery). So my first thought was:”this is going to be soooo oaky!”. Well, I was wrong. This rum must have been in an older cask from the beginning. Yes, there is quite a bit of oak on the profile, but it isn’t overpowering. It’s a thick and luscious rum that I wouldn’t link to Cuba in a blind tasting. It shows me I have much to learn about their rums. I absolutely love this one.

The Golden Devil shines on the nose. Super interesting. Sadly, the palate is on the thin side and has too much vanilla for me. It’s more akin to what my perception of Cuban rum is. Still an easy going, pleasant drink that drinks under its abv. That’s not something you can wake me up for at 3 in the morning though. The 1973 on the other hand…..

Scores

Golden Devil Caribbean 21 yr – 73

Spheric Spirits Cuba 1973 – 90

Click here for info on the scoring method.

Click here for the complete list of reviews.