Today I am wrapping up the Rum portion of my Rum Howler Awards presenting what might be considered the ‘grand prize’ awards for best rums I have tasted over the past year. I wanted to be completely fair about things so I decided that perhaps I should bring in some help and have the final tasting session done by panel rather than by myself alone.
All final tastings were done in a blind format. The panel members were not even tasting the same spirits at the same time. The rums were ranked by each panel member and then the rankings were compared to choose the best spirit for each category. Categories based loosely on age and price were established as you can see below:
The Rum Howler Award for Best Rum (aged 5 years or less):
(A price point below $37.50 in my market (Alberta) was also required.)
Honourable mention, Bermudez Ron Anejo 1852, El Dorado 5, and Diplomático Añejo,
This was a very close race with each of the four finalists receiving at least one first place vote from each of the panel members. In the end, The Juan Santos was a clear winner receiving second place votes on every scorecard where it was not ranked number one. For those who are not familiar with Juan Santos, it is a Colombian Rum produced by Casa Santana and is sold in some markets as Ron Santero 5 Anos. In all 9 rums were considered here and the four mentioned were the cream of the crop.
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The Rum Howler Award for Best Rum: (aged 10 years or less)
(The rums must also be priced below $50.00 per 750ml in my market of Alberta)
Honourable mention to, Juan Santos 9 Year, Diplomatico Reserva, and Bacardi 8 Yr Old Rum
The Colombian rums from Casa Santana just keep surprising the panel. However a bigger surprise was the Bermudez Don Amando which scored highly on every panel members scorecards. A soft light bodied rum which seemed to win everyone over. The Diplomatico Reserva and the Bacardi 8 yr had strong advocates as well but, the scoring was not as consistently high. In all eight rums were considered for this award.
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The Rum Howler Award for The Rum of the Year:
(Age and price irrelevant)
Honourable mention Appleton Estate Master Blender’s Legacy, Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva, and Juan Santos 21 Year.
What a finish for the Rum of the year Selection! A completely surprising result as the unexpected Sample bottle sent to me just recently by Oliver and Oliver (via Pavol Kazimer of Drums) literally ran away with the title on every panel members scorecards. On some cards it wasn’t even close. The Appleton Master Blender’s Legacy showed much better than I anticipated, and South America had two rums in the final four.
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And here is a summary of this portion of the Rum Howler 2010 Rum Awards
The Rum Howler Award for The Rum of the Year, Cubaney 25 Solera
The Rum Howler Award for Best Rum (aged 10 years or less), Bermudez Don Armando
The Rum Howler Award for Best Rum (aged 5 years or less), Juan Santos 5 Year
All of my 2010 Rum Awards can be found on this summary page:
In 1862, Facundo Bacardi and his brother José bought the Santiago de Cuba Distillery and began to distill what would become the most popular commercial rum in the world. Using a method of charcoal filtering, and oak barrel aging along with a still of copper and cast iron, Facundo Bacardi created a smoother more refined version of the locally made rum. His smoother version of the spirit became local favourite, and over time, an international sensation.
The Rum Howler Blog 