Velier Appleton Hearts Collection - 1998 1998 25yr 63%

"Beautiful, red-golden color. Glue, licorice, tropical fruits, ginger, spices. Chocolate and oranges. Powerful, well balanced. Mouth-filling, tropical fruits, spicy, gingerbread, dark malt. Warm, long finish. An outstanding rum. Clearly in line with the series and one of the better ones. Its profile lies between 2003 (fruity) and 1999 (liquorice). Long tropical ageing without any lignification testifies to high craftsmanship. The music: the soundtrack by Dr.No."

"Heavenly nose. Intense, complex and creamy on the palate due to the long tropical maturation. Very well integrated alcohol. Wow, a real highlight of the Hearts collection. Only the sporty price clouds the euphoria somewhat."

"No wonder Joy decided to put this into her anniversary blend. This is very good and might be the best mark/bottling from the hearts collection to date (side-by-side pending, though 🙂) Intense and rich on the nose with herbs, fruits and ginger. Amazing on the palate es well with candid ginger and fruits as well nice (and well balanced) woody notes. Superb stuff."

"Excellent representative of the Hearts series! Tropical fruit, dried fruit, polish, floral notes, toffee. Quite powerful on the palate, but the 63% is not at all 'scratchy'. I also clearly detected tropical fruits in the direction of passion fruit... There is no direct comparison now, but from memory I would say that it can keep up very well with my previous favorites, the '93, '94 and '84."

"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."

"A complex nose with a superb balance between wood and fruit (citrus and tropical fruit). A touch of sewing-machine oil adds complexity. The attack on the palate is fairly gentle, with aromas rising and filling the mouth. Harmony between wood and fruit. Good depth of aroma, but not much breadth. Black cherry. Long, elegant finish with lots of fruit and spice. Slight salinity at the very end. A very fine rum from only 19 ex-Wild Turkey barrels."

"Tasted against RX15474 (Appleton Hearts 1993). And again an improvement on yesterday's tasting (93 vs 02): Wonderful Demerara iridescence on the nose, really world class! Beautifully oily, warm, tropical, heavy on the palate, but then also Jamaican-estery (so nothing with Guyana as on the nose). One point more than the 93 because of the crazy nose."

"In my opinion, perfectly to the point! Great tropical notes, barrel influence with slight menthol notes, beautiful yellow fruits, with the alcohol super integrated. Really good and almost an easy sipper thanks to the well-integrated alcohol."

"Really nice nose reminiscent of Appleton as well as distantly of 94 new Yarmouth but with more complexity. Aromatically very round, very complex not too much wood but also reminiscent of Guyana rev with wood, lavender, licorice and violets and allspice grains, then comes back caramel, coconut and tropical overripe fruit with cinnamon. I really like it. It's like drinking new Yarmouth 94 and rev 94 at the same time. Crazy stuff. Could well be my favorite bottling of the Appleton Hearts series to date! An absolute surprise!"

"A really nice addition to the Hearts series. I really like the 1998. Great balance of wood, fruit and spices. I can't wait to see what else the series has to offer in the future. Definitely one I'd like to have a bottle of."

"An outstanding rum. Beautifully complex and intense on the nose and palate. Spicy, woody, liquorice, chocolate and sticky. Long-lasting finish and very well-integrated alcohol. But in today's direct comparison, the 93 is slightly ahead for me due to the mint."

"Un altra grande, grandissima espressione di Appleton! Per i suoi 25 anni di invecchiamento il legno è integrato perfettamente e risulta un altro rum davvero molto goloso! La qualità dei barili di appleton è incredibilmente alta! Purtroppo l’unica nota negativa è il prezzo di uscita di questa release!"

"A slightly floral/perfumed note on both the nose and the palate. Then predominantly heavy aromas with wood, leather, tobacco, charred wood, slightly bitter. Stands out somewhat from the other Hearts due to the initial floral notes, but doesn't really convince me in the end, especially considering the price."

"Franconian Rum Tasting Gang & Jakob, 2023-07-27 Part 1: This time all Appleton Hearts at the start (1984, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2002 and 2003). For me, the 1994 is still the best of the bunch, closely followed by the 1993 and 1998. The 2002 was also surprisingly tasty. The 1984 is right up there on the nose, but falls short on the palate due to the excessive wood influence."