I have noticed that the El Dorado 21 Year Old (like most well aged spirits) is subject to some amount of batch variation each year. As a 21 Year Old rum which blended from various marques from various stills, this is not to be unexpected. However, I have also noticed that despite these variations in taste profile, my appreciation for this particular rum is always very high, and every year when I do my rum rankings it is right near the top. This year it reached the pinnacle, and I have named it, The Rum Howler 2015 Rum of the Year!
As a bit of background information, 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.
Here is a link to the Rum Howler 2015 Rum of the Year:
El Dorado Special Reserve 21-Year Old Rum
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You may read about and follow the Top 25 Rum Countdown here:
The Rum Howler 2015 Top 25 Rums
To the right is my most recent acquisition, and when I re-tasted it alongside all of my favourites this past summer I found that this modestly priced spirit sat alone on top of my rankings. The Alberta Premium 25 Year Old is a spirit which brings all the goodness of Canadian Rye to the fore, yet despite its bold and spicy flavour, it is also deeply complex spirit which carries layer after layer of nuanced subtlety for the whisky connoisseur to enjoy.
Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel is the first production Canadian Whisky ever to sold in the single barrel format. It drawn from a single oak cask and bottled a full 51.5 % alcohol by volume bottling proof.
When the FDC 21 Rum was introduced at the turn of the century it created quite a splash winning accolades not only for the rum inside the bottle, but also for the stunning porcelain decanter which it was sold in. Unfortunately, this spectacular rum is no longer widely available, and full sealed bottles have become collectors items within the rum world with current (2015) pricing that ranges from $100.00 to $250.00 per bottle depending upon your locale.
For those who do not know, Fabio Rossi who is the mastermind behind Rum Nation, is also the founder of Ron Millonario. When I asked Fabio why the Ron Millonario Brand was not part of Rum Nation, he explained to me that when he was developing the Ron Millonario Rums (working in conjunction with a small to mid-sized distillery in Northern Peru) he felt the quality of the rum was such that Ron Millonario should be set apart from the Rum Nation Brand and take its own place as a premier sipping rum brand.
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