Dictador is produced in Colombia on the Caribbean coast at Cartagena de Indias City. Rather than being produced from molasses, the rum is produced from the virgin honey of sugar cane which has been distilled upon a stainless steel alembic, and aged using Dicatador’s unique take on the solera-style aging system.
Dictator’s solera aging system is a cascading process where younger rums are aged in oak casks and then blended with older rums. The aged rum are arranged in different flights with the oldest distilled rum on the lowest levels of the Solera. The younger rums are placed on the upper levels with the very youngest rums at the top. As the rum is pulled from the lowest barrels for bottling, the barrels are not fully emptied, and those barrels (about half full) are then topped up with rum from the levels just above. This marrying of old and new softens the fiery younger rum and provides the final blended rum with a refined smoothness and flavor not found in ordinary rums.
The Dictador 12 Year Old Rum, is a solera aged rum which is taken from the solera at the point where the age of the rum within that solera row is at least 12 years of age. Some older rum is certainly within those barrels as well.)
Here is a link to the review for the Rum Howler #25 Rum of 2017:
Review: Dictador 12 Year Aged Solera Rum
______________________________________
We have reached the top 25 rum spirits of 2017. I have reviewed and/or re-tasted each of these rums within the past three years. (All Rum reviews were based upon bottle samples either purchased by myself or provided to me by industry.)
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
Rum Nation
Penny Blue XO Single Estate Mauritius Rum is produced by the Indian Ocean Rum Company which 
1703 is a significant year in the world of rum. That is because this was the year that Mount Gay Rum was first produced on the Isle of Barbados which makes Mount Gay Rum one of the oldest, if not the oldest brand of rum in the world. Because Barbados is situated as a gateway from the Atlantic to the Caribbean, sailors from the Old World often used the island as the first resting point on the way to the New World. This meant Barbados was ideally suited for trade between the two worlds in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Part of that trade was rum which is why the island is considered the birthplace of the rum trade.
Rhum Barbancourt is distilled and produced by Societe du Rhum Barbancourt, in Port Au Prince on the Isle of Haiti.
The Rum Howler Blog 