We have now entered into the top 5 rankings for my 2015 Rum Howler Top 25 Rums of 2015, and up until now I have ranked each rum in my countdown based upon the score it received during my summer tasting sessions which I conducted as part of the determinations for the Rum Howler Top 100 Spirits. I decided to add another layer to my countdown at this point, and add in two more jurors to help me determine the rankings for the top 5. I gathered two friends, the same two who helped me determine the Rum Howler Top 25 Canadian Whiskies of 2015, and together we tasted the Top 5 Rum spirits of 2015 side by side. Using an amalgam of the three scores I assigned my final top 5 rankings.
Last year’s Rum Howler – Rum of the Year, Dictador Insolent lands at the number 5 spot while Don Pancho’s masterpiece from Panama, the Panamonte Reserva VVX grabs number 4. Entering into my countdown for the very first time is a limited edition rum created by DUSA Master Blender, Tito Cordero. I had thought that Diplomatico’s Exclusiva was the pinnacle of DUSA’s rum mastery, howerver this new Single Vintage Rum from Venezuela showed that the company is capable of even higher heights of rum glory.
Here are the next three fantastic cane spirits in my listing of the Best 25 Rums of 2015:
05) Dictador XO Insolent Rum
04) Panamonte Reserva XXV – 25 Year Old Rum
03) Diplomatico Single VTG 2000 Rum
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You may read about and follow the Top 25 Rum Countdown here:
The Rum Howler 2015 Top 25 Rums
Dufftown is the largest distillery in Scotland belonging to Diageo. The whisky from this distillery is primarily intended for blending. Bell’s, Islander, Dewar’s White Label, and of course Johnnie Walker all require Dufftown Whisky as part of their construction.
In the past, Wiser’s 18 Year Old advertised itself as a Limited Release bottling totaling only 3500 bottles for each batch produced. This year I noticed that the whisky has undergone a subtle brand change and is now listed as J.P. Wiser’s 18 Year Old Canadian Whisky. As part of the brand re-identification the bottle no longer contains any information on the label with respect to the batch size. Whether any real substantive change in the whisky inside the bottle has occurred is unknown to me but since we know that we can expect the whisky to change from batch to batch at a minimum, I thought it wise to provide a brand new review for the whisky this year.
Crown Royal Canadian Whisky is currently produced in Gimli, Manitoba, at the Crown Royal Distillery. The distillery and the brand are owned by Diageo, and I think it is fair to say that Crown Royal is Diageo’s flagship Canadian whisky brand. In 1992, a premium version of Crown Royal was introduced as Crown Royal Special Reserve. This whisky was produced from specially selected casks which were tasted and monitored closely by the Crown Royal Master Blender. These ‘premium casks’ represented whiskies with special character, and they were allowed to age longer with the aim of producing a more premium whisky. In the fall of 2008, this more premium Crown Royal Special Reserve was relaunched as Crown Royal Reserve Canadian Whisky.
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