Printing
As the rum category has grown in recent years, the amount of what we like to call “alternative” rums, i.e. rums imported from the Caribbean and bottled or branded elsewhere, has lost some of its identity in the process.
That’s not to say that many (most, even) of these rums aren’t glorious, but nothing like going to the Caribbean and tasting the liquor in their original habitat, seasoning what other people drink, and brands that enjoy the way (and in the bottle) drink it.
And the more you do that, the more you’ll start to expand your affinity for safe rums.
Repeated trips begin to shape his taste, telling him a local favorite that becomes normal when he is there.
And as a veteran of countless trips to the Dominican Republic over the years, I can be a little lucky to say that my favorite rum when I’m in the country is Ron Barceló (a rum manufacturer whose history dates back to 1925) especially the Barcel Imperial brand.
In the bar of a hotel, a place to eat through the sea or a market, this is the one that attracts me, a very fine rum at a pleasant price.
And, fortunately, it is also widely found in the United States.
For a long time, it was the characteristic expression of Barcel, a complex and eminently drinkable expression with a rich hazelnut finish not too dry as some of its competitors in the country.
The peculiarity of Barcel is that it is a rum that belongs to a singles domain: the cane used by the company is grown on the site.
And if technically it is not an agricultural rum (a call reserved for rums with French Caribbean sugarcane juice), it is made with sugarcane juice, not tymala, the only rum in the Dominican Republic that does, such as Rod Simmons, Brand Manager of the United States. for Barcel, he showed me.
All this adds to a rum in a country that is one of the leaders in the manufacture of Rum in the Caribbean.
About ten years ago, however, the company stepped forward in its game with something very special: the Barceló Imperial Blend 30 Anniversario.
Rum, which at the time was a 30th anniversary birthday party of the Imperial Barcel, is a very small amount of rum, with only six hundred bottles made a year for the American market.
Rum is aged for the first time for 10 years in bourbon barrels before aged for two years in French oak barrels.
In fact, it’s the jewel, the pinnacle of Barcel.
So what does it look like?
It has an earthy aroma of chocolate, orange, leather, pepper and tobacco.
The aromatic profile is marked through coffee and cardamom, port, black pepper and a note of salted caramel.
It is a round and attractive rum, with a sublime and sumptuous finish that has just passed, an endless adventure of sugar cane.
And then there’s the bottle, and its wooden back cover, sublime and ceremonial, adding one of the maximum vital criteria for any luxury rum: every time you open the bottle, it’s an event.
Obviously, it’s a wonderful rum.
But more importantly, it’s a reminder why you love Dominican Republic rum.
Rum magazine rankings
95 points
For more information, Ron Barcel.
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