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| Photo copyright © H.Kristoffersen |
Sorry for the bad crop. But the rum is awesome!
Personally, I’ve been waiting a long time for this to pop
up.
First of all, I’m a fanboy of the Rum Nation bottlings, so a
new Supreme Lord will always be extremely interesting. Especially since this
will probably be the last Supreme Lord bottling according to Mr. Rossi, as this
is the last batch of old Jamaican rums he has in store.
Secondly, this particular one is a 25 year old Jamaican from
the Monymusk distillery, which I haven’t had much experience with yet. And that
makes it even more interesting.
The rum is made in the classic Jamaican style with lots of
dunder and refined to perfection on a traditional pot still.
The batch resulted in 4 barrels of nectar, which was aged for
13 years in old american oak barrels previously used for Scottish whisky,
before being transferred to old Oloroso sherry casks for an additional 12 years
of maturation.
After the 25 years, Mr. Rossi bottled 750 bottles at cask
strength 55,7% ABV without any kind of tampering.
According to Rum Nation themselves, ”… the biggest, juiciest
and boldest aged Jamaican rum we have ever released”.
Way to raise some seriously high expectations.
Presentation
It sports the newish, huge cardboard box, which I kind of
hate. It takes up way to much space on my shelf, it feels a bit tacky and the
old wooden boxes just fits these luxury rums better. And suddenly I'm the old guy crying about how everything was better in the old days again.
The bottle is the classic, tall bar room bottle, which Rum
Nation previously used for all their rums, but lately only brought into play
with their top of the line products.
The colour scheme is particularly nice with its brown, gold
and beige tones, which fit the copper coloured rum perfectly.
Labelwise there is nothing new to highlight. Typical Rum
Nation stuff, although they did take their time to write quite the background
story on the back label this time.
Nothing too crazy or unbelievable, but mostly facts and a
couple of well placed superlatives.
In the glass it shows massive curtains and the copper colour
is just beautiful.
Nose
There is no denying the heritage.
It leads off with massive Jamaican funk. Green apples and
black, overripe bananas, along with some thick blackcurrant jams and a dash of
stale cola.
Along with the agressive fruit funk, there is an equally
agressive winey edge on it, wielding lots of tannins. They don’t pierce your
nose and take a stab at your brain, like tannins can do. They are more well rounded, but still very present.
Super delicious nose, although not that surprising. I’m just
barely excited about it, but it doesn’t stray too far from the typical Jamaican
path, which takes a couple of points off the excitement.
Taste
Oh my … Wauw … This is just … Wauw!
First impressions are good. Great even.
Super fruity without going off a cliff with it. It doesn’t
funk off like many other Jamaicans. It feels older, more mature, more
controlled.
Ripe black grapes, blackcurrants and green apples create a
perfectly balanced trinity on top of a thin wafer of yesterdays cola.
Super dry with a decent amount of tannins. Just enough to
create an awesome drying effect, and luckily not enough to destroy your mouth.
At the very end, there is a slight sensation of burning
tires in the distance, but just enough to add another facet to this gem.
It is so tasty, so balanced and so great, that I just want
to keep drinking it. With a couple of good friends. In a quiet atmosphere.
Just wauw.
Finish
You don’t really want it to go away. You’ll be begging it to
stay, actually.
And it will. It stays with you for a long, long time and
keeps delivering a lot of great flavours.
When it finally starts to fade, savoury, burning tires keeps
lingering, among the now well known fruity funk.
A great swirl of memories from a time just seconds or minutes ago.
A great swirl of memories from a time just seconds or minutes ago.
Marvelous.
Rating and final
thoughts
Ok. I’m officially blown away. This is the single best Rum
Nation rum I’ve had so far.
The level of funk, the balanced flavours, the long finish, the
over all composition, everything just works.
The nose didn’t bring anything new
to the table, but does it really have to?
I’m not really sure. But the lack of surprise or innovation is what prevents it from getting the actually "gold medal".
The decision to amp it up to cask strength for the first
time outside of white rums and Caronis, was a very, very good one. The high
strength really seems to take it to the next level, and luckily the rum is good
enough to manage it.
Rums of this caliber doesn’t come cheap. I bet you knew
that already.
And this one isn’t any different, as it goes for around €250
anywhere I’ve seen it.
Because of that price tag it enters a category of rums where most people
have to prioritise quite a lot before they buy. The average rum geek doesn’t
just throw around €250 for a bottle of rum that often.
But you should consider doing it for a bottle like this.
There is a boatload of other rums in your financial neighbourhood, when you dabble in rums
this expensive, so I’m not saying that this is the only one worth buying or even the best one available.
If you love Jamaicans and like you rums strong, then you
should definitely get it.
If you do not absolutely, head over heels, love Jamaicans,
you should probably choose something else. There is a lot of other very great
rums, from very great bottlers out there, which also deserve attention and
recognition.
If you think it is a bit out of your financial reach, let it
go. There isn’t a bottle of rum out there, which justifies making enemies with
your banker.
I really wish I could write a lot more smart and pretty
words about it, but it’s not really necessary.
Long story short: It’s great. It’s expensive. It’s superb.
It’s one to keep for future savouring.
It doesn’t really have any flaws, and it is among the most
tasty rums I’ve ever had. And certainly the best Rum Nation one. So I have to
bring out the big guns to salute it.
Therefore a…
Rating: 88/100
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