Diplomático Reserve Blanco is the latest addition to the Diplomático rum range, first introduced at the UK RumFest in 2008. It is a white rum, distilled 4 times in copper pot stills and aged for 6 years in white oak barrels before going through a five time carbon filtration to remove any trace of colour from the spirit.
Diplomático Rum Blanco comes in a simple yet refined, tall, thick bottomed bottle with pumpkin coloured labelling and text that advertise the rum as ”Ultra Premium Imported Rum" and "Ultra smooth and Slow Aged Rare Rums of the Caribbean."
The third and the oldest of the three rums, Ron Los Valientes 20 Años Añejo Reserva Especial carries the signature of the Cellar Master to indicate his devotion and pride of the product he has nurtured for so long in the cellars of Veracruz.
The bottling date is displayed and the bottles are hand numbered; with the number 022 and the year 2007 in my case.
As far as I understand, Ron Los Valientes 15 Años Añejo Especial is made using the same methods as the 10 year old the only difference being the blend of rums that has been aged a tad longer in the White Oak casks.
Being pleased with the 10 year old Los Valientes I was quite eager to taste the older 15 year old Los Valientes rum and see what it has to offer, not to mention the 20 year old Los Valientes that I will review later.
The design of the bottle is exactly the same, apart from the different age statement and different colour of the seal. One other detail in the bottles I haven't mentioned is the map showing the coastline of eastern Mexico where Veracruz is situated.
México, a nation of many fine Tequilas, Mezcal, Sotol and apparently rum too. Admittedly, spirits made from the harvested Agave plant are the first things I think of, along with jalapeños and many other things that Mexico brings to mind, rum being somewhere further down the road.
Licores Veracruz, however, appears to have been producing rum in Mexico for over 50 years producing labels such as Ron Mocambo, Rum Peñuela and the newly launched private label Ron Los Valientes, which offers rums ranging from 10, 15 and 20 years old.
During the early twentieth century in Germany, import taxes increased on foreign spirits in order to protect the domestic spirits industry The rise of taxes then saw the rise of Rum Verschnitt, which became very popular on the European mainland due to it being cheaper than imported traditional rum, which was now heavily taxed.
You have heard about rum made of molasses, Rhum Agricole, Cachaça and spiced rum but what is Rum Verschnitt? Rum Verschnitt is, in fact, rum flavoured spirit made of so called German Flavoured rum, which was produced exclusively in Jamaica at the Vale Royal Distillery by Dr. H. Cousins to help maintain the rum trade with Germany after the tax rise.
In the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass Region, above a large limestone aquifer lays a set of stone buildings over 100 years old.
The first section of the oldest building was built in 1838 and is in fact the Woodford Reserve Distillery where the Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select Bourbon Whiskey is produced.
The spring is here in full force and people are beginning to shed their clothes and finding their way to the sunny terraces of the bars as the summer approaches and the weather gets warmer.
This is the perfect time to enjoy refreshing cocktails such as the Caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail. An authentic Caipirinha can of course only be made with authentic Cachaça, a spirit that can only be made in Brazil and must be made from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice and distilled to no higher than 54% abv and bottled between 38% and 48% abv.
Silviano S. Samaroli is an independent Italian based bottler, known for his Malt Scotch Whisky and more recently for his rum bottlings as well. All of these are limited edition products from single casks that cannot be reproduced, which makes them quite special.
In the past Samaroli visited the main rum distilleries on all of the tropical sites and got familiarised perfectly with the distilleries in Jamaica, Guyana, Martinique, Trinidad, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mauritius, Reunion South Africa et cetera.
His first limited edition rum bottling was the 1948 West Indies Dark Rum which became very successful.