15th advent calendar rum and it's from Trinidad. I'm not certain if the word for that in Trinidadian, but it might as well be, I'm unlikely to get any closer than that. Let's get down to business.
Bit of an intro
This rum comes from Trinidad. I had a bit of a search around and it's another rum that's been hard to fun out much about. The company that makes it is DIH Banks and is located in Guyana, even though the rum is from Trinidad. DIH originally stood for Demerara Ice House and was the name of a hotel, bar and soft drinks plant in Demerara in Guyana. They imported ice from Canada which was pretty special for the olden days in a hot country like Guyana. It now stands for D'Aguiar Industries and Holdings, which isn't as nice, but was chosen to keep the DIH, which is quite nice. I haven't been able to find out much else about this rum, other then that it's aged ten years and bottled at 40% ABV. We'll have to taste and see.
Packaging
Hmmm. So so. It wouldn't really catch my eye on a shelf but it's not ugly. See for yourself.
$50 on 26 black
It's not horrible, but has a bit of a casino feel. To me that doesn't say quality, it says expensive glitz and glamour with no substance. That might just be my British cultural view things, but it seems just a little tacky. It seems to be a bit of a thing with some of the rum packaging though, I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing or the current fashion among rum drinkers. The fonts don't seem to fit either, the XM is a bit kind of fashion label, like CK, D&G etc, but the font used for the "10 years old" bit doesn't seem to fit that vibe. It's not ugly though, and packaging's barely relevant. It's the taste and smell that we're after.
Smell in the bottle
On opening
Superglue.
Herbal.
Vanilla.
Oak.
Appearance
It has the typical tinkle type appearance of barrel aged spirits. You won't have any surprises when you see it, so if you're of a particularly nervous disposition you can breathe a sigh of relief now.
Medium
Not particularly light, not dark. Maybe light for a rum, but then it depends what kind of rum. I used to think of rum as a dark colour, but having tried all these rums I not know different. The colour does suggests that this probably isn't made from sugar cane juice, those ones seem to be lighter colours. This is more likely made from molasses, or has a touch of caramel colouring. It doesn't seem to have that orangey hue that caramel colouring usually gives, so I'm thinking molasses and aging. From the colour I'd guess that the barrels used for maturing this spirit were ex bourbon casks and therefore American oak. America is much closer tot Trinidad than Europe so it makes sense from a logistical perspective too. If this was a whisky then aging it in European oak casks would usually mean ex-sherry casks which usually give a reddish of coppery tint, which this rum doesn't have. However, this isn't a whisky and so that might not be applicable.
Neat
Nose
Superglue.
Kind of tropical fruit.
Kind of banana.
Brown sugar.
Maybe a bit of apple?
Arrival
Sweet.
Brown sugar.
Banana?
Development
Bitter, dark chocolate style.
Some kind of spices. Clove, cinnamon, nutmeg.
Finish
Oak.
Woody with a hint of vanilla.
Hint of menthol?
Water
Nose
Dark muscovado sugar.
Clove, cinnamon, nutmeg.
White chocolate.
Sweet vanilla.
Dried fruit, maybe raisin.
Hint of wood smoke.
Arrival
Sweet spices, cinnamon mostly.
Touch of orange candy.
Some dried fruit, not loads.
Development
Dark chocolate.
Slightly nutty.
Hint of smokiness, dry wood smoke but sweetish
Finish
Chocolate.
Oak.
Smokiness being a bit more bonfire.
A few extra comments
I thought it would be worth commenting on the casks. I haven't managed to find out what kind of casks are used to mature this rum. I did get notes of vanilla, which I would usually associate with American oak, but I also got notes of Christmassy spices, which I would usually associate with European oak. There were notes of raisin and dried fruits too, which could suggests a sherry maturation with a whisky, but I don't know if it means the same with a rum. I think if one type of barrels are used and I had to put money on what kind I'd go with American oak, ex-bourbon casks. The reason being that there were moments when vanilla and wood flavours came together, particularly in the finish, but not so much where the spice and wood came together. There was also a hint of wood smoke in there, which might be from charred wood. Bourbon casks have to be charred on the inside so that's the connection I'm making.
Conclusion
Quite nice. The smoky note was interesting and I felt like I was on slightly more familiar ground with that. This wasn't too sweet and had more complexity that some others of the same strength. In fact, on the standard one to ten scale the complexity was quite impressive for 40% ABV. On the whole I liked it. I'm not sure I'd buy a bottle, and it's not available here in Norway other than in this rum sample box. I'd consider it though and I might have a glass if I saw it in a bar. It's a bit of a shame there isn't more information about it online, although that gave me the opportunity to explore it for myself with no expectations which I enjoyed.
Hopefully I can get the next review out later today, since this one was a day late. Yesterday was a bit busy, but life's like that sometimes.
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