You may recall reading a news article about Renegade Rums some time ago. I have now received more information about these rums, including tasting notes that are at the end of this news article.

As said in the previous news article, Renegade Rum is a brand created by the independend bottler, Murray McDavid who over three years ago decided to venture into the world of rum.

They tracked down casks from a select group of single distilleries from the Caribbean and the Americas, some of which have either closed down or changed production location.

Renegade Rum combines single distillery rum provenance, with their innovative cask expertise. These rums are originally matured in American oak casks and then additionally matured in exceptional quality wine, madeira or port casks for extra complexity and texture.

These vintage aged limited edition rums are bottled naturally without chill-filtration - to retain natural cask flavours - at the Bruichladdich Distillery and reduced to 46% strength with Isle of Islay spring water. Renegade Rums are for the true spirit connoisseurs and intended to be savoured on their own.

Continue to discover the tasting notes of each Renegade Rum.

The very first rum I reviewed was Havana Club Añejo 7 Años and I felt it was time to review another product from the Havana Club range as people had been requesting more Havana Club rum reviews. This time I will let you in on what Havana Club Cuban Barrel Proof holds within its decorated, blue labelled bottle.

Hand-crafted by "Maestro Ronero" Don Navarro, Cuban Barrel Proof is made from a blend of different aged rums aged in extra-old white oak barrels.

This blend is then put to rest in younger oak casks or "finish" casks and finally bottled straight from the cask at 45% without being diluted with water.

Temptryst rums are produced by Texas based Au Natural Spirits Inc, which is run by the president and head of research, Daniel Watson. Coveted by the connoisseurs at the Ministry of Rum and Refined Vices, Temptryst rums have quickly gained a reputation despite the fact that these rums are still relatively unknown to the wider audience and not yet on the market.

For instance, Cherry Wood XO won a gold award at the Ministry of Rum tasting competition amongst other award winning Temptryst rums. Such appreciation can only promise good fortune for the upcoming rum brand.

Ardbeg presents a truly innovative and luxurious creation of single cask bottlings – Ardbeg ‘Double Barrel’.

Inspired by the tradition of a shooting party, Ardbeg have created a ‘Double Barrel’ guncase, crafted by a traditional guncase maker.

Only 250 of these exquisite cases exist anywhere in the world -The ultimate in luxury for the ultimate Islay Malt.

Click read more to see what the guncase contains!

During the February school vacation here in Massachusetts our family took an eastern Caribbean cruise, with stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, La Romana, Dominican Republic and Grand Turk.

This was to be a great opportunity to relax as a family and also visit some of the great rum producing areas of the Caribbean.  I knew that the Bacardi distillery was near San Juan so I checked into visiting the facility.

I am a big fan of rum, but not a big fan of the Bacardi line of rums but I figured it would be fun to see the mega-facility anyway and it would be better than anything else I could do in San Juan, aside from shop for other local rums, which I should be able to do on my way back to the ship anyway!

Unfortunately we were going to be docked in Old San Juan at night and the distillery visiting hours were only until 5PM. I was a bit disappointed but then received the list of tours offered by the cruise line and alas, there was a private after hour’s tour of the distillery.

It was a bit pricey but after looking at the limited options offered for San Juan (tour of Old San Juan, or shopping tour) I decided I should do it, especially since I never made it to the distillery in Nassau on last years’ vacation. My wife and daughter had no interest in going, so I signed up alone.

The review of Jameson Irish Whiskey this week is a special one because instead of one review you will get to read two reviews written by me and our guest writer Esteban Fontsworth.

On top of that at the end of my review I’ve written a short comparison between oxidised Jameson and fresh Jameson.

Some of you may wonder what it means for a spirit to be oxidised but read on and all shall be revealed.

History

Scot John Jameson moved to Dublin in the 1770's and went on to found one of Ireland’s first legal distilleries in 1780.

He went on to acquire more distilleries and was once able to claim he had more than one million gallons of whiskey aging in Dublin.

Santa Teresa 1796 Ron Antiguo de Solera was launched in 1996 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Hacienda Santa Teresa. The bottle is packed inside a blue cardboard tube decorated with a red ribbon and a red plastic seal that reads 1796.

The bottle itself is tall and elegant sealed with red wax going all the way from over the cork down to the neck. Around the neck is a booklet, which, on this particular bottle, is written entirely in Spanish as are the old looking labels on the bottle which have the same descriptions as the booklet.

As one might guess from the name and the descriptions, Santa Teresa uses an aging process called the solera method.