#Top100Rums of 2017: #3 – El Dorado Special Reserve 21 Year Old Rum
Posted by Arctic Wolf on December 18, 2017

The 2015 Best Rum in the World
Demerara County (in Guyana) is popular across the world for its rich, three hundred year history of rum production. Using a combination of old wooden stills in conjunction with modern stills and distilling techniques, Demerara Distillers Ltd. (DDL), has built a reputation for outstanding quality and consistent production. In fact, Demerara Distillers is the currently the largest supplier of bulk Caribbean Rum to Europe and North America.
The DDL Master Blender is credited with the creation of El Dorado 21-Year-Old Rum which uses a blend of rums selected from their world-famous stills, the Enmore (wooden Coffey still), the Versailles (single wooden pot still), and the Albion (Savalle still). All of the rums in the blend have been aged in oak for a minimum of 21 years, making this one of the oldest production rums in the world.
According to the DDL website…
“El Dorado rums are blended selections of different ‘vintages’ or batches of rums from different stills – aged in oak barrels. Importantly, the age statement specifically indicates the youngest rum in the blend, even though the oldest may be many years older. This rule is the same as the one for Scotch Whisky and is used for rums produced in English-speaking countries…”
Here is a link to the review for the Rum Howler #3 Rum of 2017:
Review: El Dorado Special Reserve 21 Year Old Rum
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We have reached the top 5 rum spirits of 2017. In mid November, I tasted each of the top 5 rums side by side to determine the final rankings. These final rankings may not absolutely agree with my previous scores when reviewing each spirit, but they do reflect my feelings regarding the relative merit of each rum in mid-November 2017.
You can continue to follow the countdown on twitter (Rum Howler on Twitter) using the hashtag #Top100Rums.
Alternatively you can view the list as it grows daily by viewing my Reveal Page:
The Rum Howler – Top 100 Rums of 2017
2 Responses to “#Top100Rums of 2017: #3 – El Dorado Special Reserve 21 Year Old Rum”
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Simon Colwell said
Hi Chip
Loving the annual top 100 rums countdown. I have a question as to how you arrive at the rankings. You ranked the El Dorado 21 at number 3 and scored it 95 points yet the Dictador XO Insolent was ranked number 5 with a score of 97. Are there factors other than the final score that determine the ranking ?
Simon
Arctic Wolf said
Because batch variation is huge with the older spirits (their are fewer barrels available for the blends) I did side by side tastings of the final five to make sure my list was valid for 2017.