Velier Appleton Hearts Collection - 1993

 Reminiscent of a T.D.L with some REV through the mint/black tea note. Adds a great and heavy barrel influence due to the tropical aging.After some time grapefruit, herbs and some glue come in. The alcohol is very well integrated. An almost endless finish. Lots to discover here. Great. My #2 from the Hearts Collection!

 Ui I should have struck with a bottle...Wonderfully fruity and fresh 😯😯I had not expected. Parallels to Guyana REV the balanced heavy fruit, herbs with wood one recognizes here again. ... also mint and even some funk is to smell and taste, great !!! Nice surprise!

 Quite exciting. A rum that already has a lot of barrel influence and therefore recognizable signs of age - but has not yet fully matured beyond its zenith and is drowning in bitterness and an exuberant wood influence. On the nose, heavy notes of glue, wood, tea and dark and sweet fruit. There is plenty of mint on the palate, as well as tart hints of leather and spices. The finish is spicy, which makes me think of ginger. That's something, even if I would have liked to have tasted the distillate with 2-3 years less tropical maturation.

 Edit: It would be a dream to be able to try the whole Appleton Hearts range. My conclusion would be that this is a really high-quality range. All in all, they are all great bottlings. I personally find it difficult to choose a true winner here. Only the 84 falls a little short. Both it and the 02 can't quite keep up, although that's complaining at a high level. However, if I had to choose one, it would probably be the 03 because it was the first one I tasted from the series. Another wonderful Appleton Hearts bottling. As already mentioned, the minty notes on the palate are reminiscent of T.D.L and REV. I had feared that the long tropical maturation, the cask/wood and especially the bitter note would ruin the drop. But this is not the case. A direct comparison of the complete series is still pending. In any case, very successful.

 Tasted against the 2002 Appleton Hearts (RX15475). And if I thought it was a dream at the first tasting, I have to say that I like this one a tick better. It's a little less alcoholic and earthier and spicier on the nose and palate, more KFM-like (which, as you know, I really like). 😉

 Update: in direct comparison with the 94 Platzhirsch, it really did extremely well. The 94 is somewhat fruitier and sweeter in my opinion and the 93 has the nicer tannin, wood and mint mixture. Very nice bottling - I'll have to try it again against the 1994 to see which one suits me better, but it's already very good. With the 1994 definitely my favorite of this delicious series. More on the woody-bitter side ... but I don't mind. The nose opens up wonderfully fruity after a while and everything seems a bit like REV and TDL as mentioned before ... but also somehow like the old EMBs. Exactly mine.

 In a direct (unfair) comparison with the 2002 Appleton, this one is much better! Dark fruits, herbs, mint and intense black and fresh peach iced tea. The finish is long, here the black and peach iced tea comes through even more with a pleasant woodiness. This rum is fun.

 Tasted and enjoyed at the 1802 bar in Paris with good advice! Then in 2024 a nice sample! Nose: very fresh. fine wood, red fruits, menthol, light camphor, a few notes of dark chocolate; milk chocolate... Grapefruit, glue, dried herbs, tea... It's crazy, heady, like a perfume. Mouth: explosive, peppery, spicy. Then fruit returns under a very strong menthol. Finally, chocolate that coats the tongue. Almost unprecedented intensity. Alcohol very slightly present. Finish: big menthol, outrageous woodiness, big tannins, and dark chocolate again!

 Today the 1993 in direct comparison with the 2002. This Hearts-typical note, which somehow smells like polish or floor polish, I have with both in the nose, with the 02er a bit more pronounced. The 93 goes a bit more in the direction of freshness, herbs and tobacco, the 02 more in the direction of orange liqueur marzipan cake and brioche. On the palate, both with dried fruit, the longer aging is clearly evident in the 93, expressed in a slight (but not unpleasant) bitterness, tannins and black tea. The 02 has even more sweetness and goes more in the direction of allspice and latte. Both again top notch bottlings, but the 93 is already a bit more complex.

 Appleton Hearts Crosstasting with the vintages 2002, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999 (RX15475, RX15474, TBD) 2002: Fruity and spicy with a hint of menthol. Lots of wood and spices on the palate, slightly astringent and bitter, very subtle fruity notes. 1993: Significantly more intense with more spices and more from the cask, plus dirty notes that remind me of TDL or Chairmans. Extremely dry and bitter on the palate with a good barrel impact, slightly charred. I miss something fruity here. The finish is very long! 1994: Similar to 1993, but more fruit and a clear minty note. Clear parallels on the palate too, but not quite as bitter and dirty and fruit notes are still discreetly present. 1999: Lots of wood and spices, with dried fruit and tropical fruit in the background. Fruits in the background. Lots of spices and wood on the palate, but hardly any fruit notes, but no charred/bitter notes either. 1995: Again, dirty aromas with tar, leather and varnish. Similar to 1993/1994, the woody, bitter aromas also dominate the palate here. For me: 1994 ->8.8 2002 + 1999 ->8.7 1993 + 1995 ->8.6

 By far the best of the series for me, I would not have thought! Especially exciting I find the note of black tea, blackberries, lavender and mint, reminiscent of Enmore REV for me, as well as some licorice. Very awesome!!!

 Noticeably old, long matured Appleton. Very strong character due to the barrel influence. Not a smoothly polished, shallow easy sipper, but a masculine, robust rum with rough edges. I like it, but it's not a world-class rum, which you might well expect given the basic data.

 #4023 Had a little time to line up the three new Heart Collection releases before going to a tasting event at Romdeluxe later today. This particular rum is really nice and it's well balanced and fruity with roasted wood notes. Pretty close to saying this is an elegant release and the price is pretty OK at time of release. The empty glass reveals nice coffee and nutty notes and it draws really nice curtains in the glass.

 The nose is surprisingly spicy and intense. The 63% alcohol is so well integrated and does not bring any spiciness to the nose apart from glue. The same is confirmed on the palate. The 29-year-old is buttery smooth and yet spicy/intense in the mouth. It reminds me very strongly of an older Armagnac. Great notes of wood, leather, mint and other herbs emerge alongside black tea, caramel and liquorice. There is no trace of the 63% and it is extremely complex. The long finish is wonderfully spicy with herbs, roasted aromas and pineapple. As on the palate, all the flavors are accompanied by black tea, caramel and vanilla. A very well matured and varied product.

 On the nose I find it still quite restrained, with time it develops finely perceptible separable aromas. The palate is there much more present, beautiful herbal aromas paired with wood and spice and burnt sugar! The alcohol is nicely integrated! This chain of flavors continues on the finish, with a hint of bitter orange joining in later. A very good bottling