The Whisky Jury The Many Faces of Rum

"Interesting profile that definitely shows its age, but without being overpowering. Chocolate and dried fruit aromas add some sweetness, but remain in the background due to the barrel aromas, milk coffee, leathery meat notes and fresh fruit aromas. Well-balanced and easy to drink, delicious, just a little too little pointed in the individual aromas, which is somewhat at the expense of complexity."

"You have to be strong now: This rum is a bitter disappointment for me and does not live up to my high expectations. While it still gives a hint of its Cuban origins on the nose at the beginning and is quite pleasing, I smell something like thickened, dark cherry juice (syrup, but later sweaty feet), and still maintains the level on the palate at the beginning (without being too weak on the chest for me!), it unfortunately falls off enormously in the finish, which is important for me, as a disgusting resinous note dominates, which strangely reminds me of the failed Virgin Oak experiment RX16012. The nose just about saves the rum in the 70s range. Sorry, but that's my subjective impression, which shouldn't stop you from tasting this Methuselah for yourself. Update 2024-02-06: Tasted the rum again together with Lot-NAS and now have to apologize - at least a little: After a very long time to breathe, the rum seems even more syrupy, as if thickened. I no longer notice the unpleasant resin taste. Conclusion: A beautiful, ancient sipper with unusual power, a flagship of the Spanish style, even if not quite round. Definitely needs a long breath! Update 2024-04-10: Finally direct tasting today against the Cuban 1992 from Wu Dram Clan (RX18823) and the difference could hardly be greater. I see my earlier separate assessments confirmed: They may both come from the same distillery, but where I taste succinctly fine cocoa in the 92, in the 78 it's just penetrating tasting damp, charred wood - like a campfire that was put out yesterday and got rain overnight. The 78 has simply been in the barrel too long."

"1000s of tastings... it should be something special... at least that's what I thought. Nose Lots of dried fruit grape, raisin ... Dark chocolate, caramel and a delicious sweetness. Palate Less fruity... Chocolate some coffee and wood .... lots of bitters .... Finish... Wood and bitter notes, somewhat musty. I have to say that I'm a little disappointed. Nose Top Palate Flop probably hits it quite well ... although flop is a bit harsh 🤗 because it tastes good but just not what I expected or hoped for."

"#4598 03.02.2024 Got back from shopping in Germany and picking up my packages with samples and bottles. Thank you Gunnar for the nice samples for the DK community. This rum needs to rest for a good while before it opens up properly. I like it and it's a pretty powerful rum when thinking about most Cuban releases we see. It's also one of those rums that will split waters ☺️ Nose Elegant and light, round, fruity, light smoke, faint floral, glue. Palate Medium dry, wood, roasted, fruity, spicy, light chocolate, faint caramel. Finish Very long, dry, spicy, wood, roasted, dried fruit. Beautiful slow moving curtains in the glass. The empty glass has stronger chocolate, tannins, faint workshop notes."

"Edit: On the spontaneous Cuba evening, the RX18823, the RX17933 and the RX20297 competed against each other. For me, the bottling from The Whisky Agency is the winner. All are more on the woody side and seem a little one-dimensional. I put the WuDram in last place, as it has an unpleasant acidity in the taste. I personally expected a little more from this rum. The basic data actually sounded quite exciting. But unfortunately it disappoints a little. Not bad, but not convincing enough."

"Caramelized ashtray. A total failure for the price."

"A small but fine Cubatasting is on the agenda today. Ever since I tried the Valdespino, I've been looking for a similar profile (tobacco, leather, dark fruit, old wood, fireplace, light smoke, full-bodied, oily and fat texture) at cask strength. Let's see if we can find it here. A Venezuelan has also sneaked in =P 1st Plantation Cuba: Dances out of line in terms of color. Fruitier and not at all what I imagine my Cuban to be like. The sweetest and also by far the most boring of the tasting. 75 pts (second tasting: -2 pts) 2nd Rome Deluxe Cuba: A positive surprise at.first tasting and still very tasty. Has the aromas mentioned at the beginning, also some yellow fruits, plus slightly creamy and quite wild on the palate. Not overly complex, but very pleasing. 86 pts (second tasting: +2 pts) 3rd Wudramclan Cuba 1992: Tastes like the consistent evolution of Romdeluxe's Cuban. Not as wild, somewhat more one-dimensional fruit flavors, much more leather and tobacco, some ash. Very short and fruity-ashy finish. 85 pts. 4th The Whisky Jury Cuba 1978: When this came out I had high hopes: great bottler, almost unbelievable key data, that color... In this comparison, it seems to me that the Cubans not only lose their impetuousness with age, but also their variety of aromas and structure. All the fruit in this rum is burnt, strangely enough this rum is very light on the tongue and not fat and oily as I had hoped. The tobacco, the wood and the fruit literally turn to ash in the mouth. Somehow I like that, but on the other hand it is not at all an upgrade to the Rom Deluxe Cuban, if you compare them directly. 85 pts (third tasting: -4 pts) 5th Cadenheads Dictador 26 yo: My Cuban in a Venezuelan coat! That's how I imagine it! Great aromas, great oily, fat structure. Tobacco, old wood, some ash (for me still and fitting in the aroma spectrum). <3 88 pts. Many thanks to Mto75 for the samples!"

"Blind würde ich das alter nicht herausschmecken. Der Rum ist zwar vom holz geprägt aber keinenfalls übermässig. Im Gegenteil er ist noch relativ fruchtig. Unterwegs kamen mir Assoziationen von Gummifröschen und Malibu. Tropisch Früchte, Leder, Tabak, Kokosnuss, karamell, Vanille, Pfirsich und Maracuja. Mir hat er beim ersten mal besser gefallen. Insgesamt doch sehr kurzer Abgang."

"Intense on the nose dominated by wood and leathery notes. High intensity on the palate as well. Compared to the 92 WDC, I don’t get too much fruity notes here. The TWJ presents a very dark profile. Wood, tobacco, dark chocolate and intens coffee/mocca notes. It is not overly dry, however. There is still sweetness and some vanilla in the mix. This is good stuff. Yet it very much gravitates towards said dark notes, ie less complex than the WDC. I think this has some potential to divide opinions… for me the profile at some points is akin to whisky. While I‘m not much into whisky, I find this quite interesting here. Definitely a great bottling to try!"

"Hmmm... somehow I miss something here or rather... my expectation was much higher... it is too one-dimensional for me... barrel, leather, minimal dried fruits... a little caramelized sweetness is also there and that's it... measured by the price a disappointment for me"

"unmistakably Spanish style on the nose, but very heavy, sticky sweet. Toffee / butterscotch, tropical wood and acacia honey come to mind. A thin menthol veil over the whole thing...On the palate, nutty-sweet, coffee, old cask with a slightly tart note on the finish...the profile reminds me a little of the 26-year-old Cadenhead Dictador, which I found a little more varied. The 44 years in the cask here seem a little overwhelming. However, it is definitely worthy of all honors to bottle such a time-honored rum (at a still quite moderate price)."

"I would have blindly guessed a Longpond here and would never have guessed Cuba. Definitely fermented fruit/ester on the nose and palate. If you leave it to stand for a while, an aroma of milk chocolate develops, accompanied by roasted notes of coffee. Despite the many aromas, or perhaps because of them, this rum seems very unrounded, and a certain alcoholic sharpness also bothers me. All in all, it's very exciting, but you can't taste its age at all and the price-taste ratio doesn't really come across to me here."

"Interesting rum but at the same time disappointing because it does not live up to the expectations of such an old rum. Noticeable coffee, cocoa and spices on the nose. Extremely sweetened coffee flavor on the palate. Almost reminds me of the Koloa Coffee Spiced Rum. Also very woody and meaty notes. Somehow I could imagine that it has been sweetened..."

"The second old Cuban on this Easter Sunday is even older. It was allowed to age for a whole 41 years. Hammer. Nose: wow, it surprises you with its strong tobacco aromas. Pipe tobacco and old, cold, smoked-out pipe. Smoky and bacony at the same time. Old leather and resinous cedar wood. Dried dates, prunes and raisins can still be found behind the tobacco. Even if the umami tobacco drowns everything out, I don't think it's bad at all. 8.5 Palate: Close to the nose. Lots of old pipe tobacco and cold pipe smoke. Also bacon-roasted and salty-laced with vanilla. Perhaps also a little prune, but definitely doughy like gingerbread. You can't drink much of this, as it's almost too intense, but such an aroma profile is rather rare. Therefore 8.5 for me. Great old rum!"

"45 years old - if this information is correct, that's quite a statement for this unspecified rum from the Caribbean. In any case, the profile confirms the impression of great age. Dried fruits, berries, but also woody-resinous notes are paired with a forest honey sweetness that creates a rounded overall experience. Wherever this rum comes from, they seem to know how to make rum. I find this concise fruitiness particularly remarkable, which still stands up bravely to the woody aromas even after all these years. The only drawback is the very thin taste. At first I thought it only had 4 percent, because you can't taste this almost full proof. Whether due to storage or excessive dilution (when it went into the barrel?), this actually strong rum lacks power. While the nose can still be captured well in the balloon glass, it becomes very thin on the palate at the latest, and the finish disappears almost immediately, despite many bitter notes. A real shame, otherwise a high score of 8.x would have been possible."