What is it? Molasses based rum from Panama, column distilled and aged in a solera system for maximum of 18 years. The solera contains a mixture of ex-bourbon casks and various wine casks – no details on what wine but I’d wager there are certainly sherry casks in there. Batch released annually with around 6000 bottles each year (so I believe).

Likely coloured, is filtered and bottled at 40% abv.

Sugar? No online data. Seems to have something going on in there but that may well be the mix of wine casks used in the blend, so can’t say for sure.

Nose: Smoky, leather, dried fruits – in fact smoked raisins (if ever a thing existed). Burnt sugar, milky coffee, molasses and caramel. Some barrel char and oak. Under the fatter notes is a light trace of menthol, some watermelon and even grape flavour jolly ranchers.

Palate: A bit (not a lot) sweet actually on delivery, hmmmmm, shame. Medium mouth feel. Apricots, loads of oranges, flambed orange rind, dates, big fat and juicy raisins, smoky tobacco leaf, barrel char again and some soft eating licorice. Some of those mixed caramelized nuts you get at Christmas time.

Finish: Medium. Some sweetness carried through. Bananas now, but those dried slices you get in muesli etc. Starts to get spicy with pepper, ginger and clove. As things tail off there is a bit of a buzz and things get all flat. Not sure if this is because of any “additions” or something knocking things off center from the cask blend.

Thoughts? I like this. It’s a complex rum with layers of flavour and is something different than your standard ex-bourbon cask matured rum. It’d pair well with pudding and in fact the Rum Nation website does suggest pairing with chocolate – I can see that. It gives the smoothness you expect from solera aging but with enough going on to make things interesting. I’d prefer to see higher abv again on this, as an Independent bottler I’m sure they can put this stuff out at 43% abv or even 46% as it needs a bit more wallop on the finish. I picked this up for £48, which I think it a fair reflection of the rum you’re getting in the bottle, so I’d be happy to buy this again.