Eminente Gran Reserva, 10 year

This is a rum I tried for the first time at The Rum Show last summer and was one of my standout rums so it was something of a no brainer for me to pickup a bottle. A spoiler for the tasting notes ahead but I think this is a great example of the downside of doing tastings without a fresh palate. Having already tasted quite a few rums during the show I wasn’t able to get the same level of detail I got sat with just a glass of this on it’s own.

Nose

Immediately sandalwood jumps straight out at me. Dark roast espresso, honey, clotted cream fudge, hazelnut, wet nettle/mint, dried apricot.

There is very little wood. What I do get is damp and mossy, more like pine needles than bark.

Palate

Big opening notes of musky citrus – definitely orange. (which if you’ve been a follower of my blog in the past you know I’m not a fan of)

Dried apricots, watered down honey, cinnamon and clove. There is a floral element too that makes me think of lilies (that I am unfortunately allergic too).

Again, very similar to the nose, very little wood notes for the time spent in the barrel but at the same time this doesn’t feel particularly young either.

This is a well balanced and interesting rum and I’m definitely going to revisit this in 6 months to see if those orange notes are present, as I didn’t get them a year ago.

2/10 – A couple of key tasting notes (orange and lilies) that I dislike. Again surprising after rating this high at the rum show.