Appleton 21 year old rum

[Ken Gargett]

tried this with the bolivar gold medal. worked very well. i thought this was a seriously fabulous rum, though an expensive one. here we are paying $130 to $150 a bottle. opened with smoky honey notes, orange rind and spice. wonderfully complex. obviously mature with aged material. a rum of absolute class. thick and dense flavours, fire and ice. very long finish but a clean one. i'm sure that it made the cigar taste better than it might have otherwise.

[avid toker]

damn good rum if you ask me!:-D

[anacostiakat]

» tried this with the bolivar gold medal. worked very well. i thought this

» was a seriously fabulous rum, though an expensive one. here we are paying

» $130 to $150 a bottle. opened with smoky honey notes, orange rind and

» spice. wonderfully complex. obviously mature with aged material. a rum of

» absolute class. thick and dense flavours, fire and ice. very long finish

» but a clean one. i'm sure that it made the cigar taste better than it

» might have otherwise.

A little less here. Appleton makes good rum.

[Colt45]

I've never tried the 21, but I have tried, and enjoyed, some of their other offerings.

I picked up a few different bottles last time I was in Jamaica. I do like Jamaican rum.

[Jimmy2]

A little info Ken..

Appleton Estate 21 Year Old Jamaican Rum

For those who like the finer things in life....

Special Delivery of "Rolls Royce" of Rums: a toast to the 21 year old blends of Appleton Estate

Australian customs officers take note! This winter Australia will be honoured to receive a special delivery of 66 cases of the world's most exclusive rum blend. Appleton Estate 21 Year Old Jamaican Rum has been distilled by the world's first female Master Blender, Joy Spence and is sure to ignite the palates of luxury-lovers and liquor connoisseurs.

For 2006, only 2,000 cases of Appleton Estate 21 have been produced for the worldwide market and Australia will receive a special share in recognition of the growing group of consumers who have been passionately enjoying the aged blends of the Appleton Estate since the rum launched here in 2004. The 66 cases will be shipped to Australian shores from the tropical Caribbean island of Jamaica, the birthplace of Appleton Estate - under close watch!

Since launching in Australia, Appleton Estate's versatile and sophisticated aged blends have been quietly changing the perception of rum, with homes and bars across the country opening their eyes to the possibilities and embracing the rum renaissance. This new appreciation of rum in Australia, takes into consideration the depth of aged rum blends introduced by Appleton Estate.

Priced at $159.99 retail, the silver embossed and individually numbered bottles of super-premium Appleton Estate 21 will be for sipping by the refined palates of serious liquor aficionados. And for those interested in joining the rebellion and getting serious about great rums, Appleton also supplies Australia with three premium aged variants, which have a versatility and quality unmatched by other rums.

Appleton Estate V/X a premium blend of rums with an average age of five years RRP $37.99

Appleton Estate Reserve an indulgent blend of rums with a minimum age of eight years RRP $49.99

Appleton Estate Extra a finely crafted blend of rums with a minimum age of twelve years RRP $59.99

Appleton Estate Rums can be enjoyed sipped on the rocks with a twist of fresh lime or as a flavoursome base to uber-cool Mojito and Cuba Libre cocktails, which glitter the drink lists of style-bars and fine dining restaurants around the country.

The Appleton Estate was founded in 1749 and is one of the world's oldest and most famous rum distilleries. Master Blender Joy Spence combines art and science to achieve the unique golden colours and sweet nutty flavours in Appleton Rums which are created through a combination of secret blending techniques and the lengthy wooden barrel ageing process in the tropical Jamaican climate.

[Ken Gargett]

hi jimmy

many thanks. perfect timing, i'm doing an article on rum this weekend, or would if the imbeciles at telstra would allow me to stay connected for more than ten minutes a time.

do you know where it came from?

[Jimmy2]

Here the link Ken

http://www.femail.com.au/appleton-estate-2...amaican-rum.htm

More info Ken

Appleton Estate 21-year-old

June 4th, 2007 — Scott Steeves

“Born in old copper stills and aged in oak casks for a minimum of 21 years, the rich full flavour of Apple Estate 21 Year Old rum is the ultimate expression of the rum maker’s art.”

“Hand Blended”

Intrigued yet? I’ve always loved Appleton Estate rums, so I was very curious, and I consider myself lucky that I found a place that stocked it. For $63, it seems that I got a good deal, since I’ve regularly seen mention of pricing most often at $90 and spiking to $110. For that much money, I truly hoped for a very, very good rum, but I felt confident that J. Wray & Nephew wouldn’t let me down, nor would their 21-year-old rums.

After letting it sit on my shelf for a week, I just cracked bottle number 2189 of the 12,000 bottles produced in 2004.

Selection And Blending

The process of making this rum is quite interesting. Each rum used in the blend is selected by Joy Spence, the master blender at J. Wray & Nephew. (She’s the first woman in the rum industry to be a master blender.) The rums are carefully chosen for unique characteristics - taste, aroma, etc. - that will result in a fine blend. They are then blended by hand, and this concoction is placed into oak vats for a year, allowing the rums to fully blend and “marry” the tastes and aromas. The care taken in this process is exquisite and must certainly produce a very fine rum indeed.

To say the least, I was looking forward to trying this rum, and finally found myself with the time and mood to enjoy it.

Initial Tastes

This rum has a dark golden color, though lighter than I had expected for a collection of rums that had been in oak barrels for 21 years or more. The legs are thick - they don’t move on the glass at all. A faint green ring can be detected in the right light, indicating its long existence in those barrels.

The rum initially smells sweet in that typical Appleton way. Hints of good things to come. Some faint smells of vanilla and almond came out with some concentrated sniffing, carefully keeping my distance from the glass to make sure I didn’t burn out my sense of smell. The rum is 86-proof, so that’s relatively easy to do.

The first sip was less sweet than the smell indicated, with a wonderful flavor, and a very long finish accompanied by a very mild burn. This rum is absolutely sippable neat, and ice would be a form of heresy. (Mainly because it would go down so easily that you’d kill the bottle in one sitting!) A second sip found me hunting for some other tastes, and they did take some hunting. I consider this a simple rum - that is, not complex. This is not a bad thing - though I do like more complex rums, this rum is extremely good with the taste it provides. It has mild hints of vanilla and almond, light fruitiness - orange is there if you concentrate. Some slightly darker tastes can be found - at times I thought I detected some spiced apple tastes.

A Little Water

I added a little water, just a few drops, which didn’t seem to do much. It brought up the sweetness just a bit, and let a touch of spiciness in, but I certainly had not added enough water. So I added another few drops - which resulted in a bit of a splash due to carelessness. I was afraid that I had ruined it - too much water can certainly dull down a good liquor. But this rum held up to my splash of water quite nicely, and it still retained that wonderful taste. A touch of water is definitely recommended here - it brings it up a notch, not enough to change it but just enough to heighten the tastes.

Almonds and Vanilla

Once the first shot was done, I wiped the glass with a paper towel to prepare it for another tasting. Yeah, call me lazy - I should have rinsed it or gotten another glass, but I just wiped it out. Thinking that I should have rinsed the glass, I smelled it to see what smells I had left behind that might interfere with another tasting. To my surprise the glass reeked - in a very pleasant way - of vanilla and a slight almond smell. It did not smell of rum at all, just the vanilla and almonds. Wow, that was a nice smell.

A Little Wait

I poured another small shot, and let this sit for what turned out to be 7 minutes. This didn’t have much of an effect, really. Some very subtle changes, but not much at all. It was certainly not worth waiting for! Add a few drops of water and start sipping.

Summary

This is an excellent rum, there are no doubts about it. It’s a simple rum - not complex - with a wonderful taste. There’s no doubt that the care taken in making this rum has produced a very high quality rum. It’s extremely sippable, with the mildest of burns, and an extremely pleasant long finish. For the price I paid - $63 - it’s a no-brainer for a lover of fine rums. I would hesitate if I found it at the higher prices I’ve seen on the Internet. A $90 price tag would make this difficult to justify.

But it is damned good. I would have to place this as my third favorite so far - after the Ron Zacapa Centenario 23-year-old and the Flor de Caña 21 (which I enjoy slightly more because of its complexity). One day I’ll have to sit all three of these rums down and do a comparison. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.

[cvm4]

It is some damn fine rum! You made a nice choice.

[skid11]

When you have a good quality rum like this one how do you have it ? Straight up? chilled ? with ice ? I'm interested to know.

[Ken Gargett]

One day I’ll have

» to sit all three of these rums down and do a comparison. It’s a tough job,

» but someone’s got to do it.

jimmy, someone has.

thanks again. the zacapa 23 years fascinates me. clearly a wonderful rum but i don't see it having the complexity of the absolute best and i find it a bit sweeter than many.

[Ken Gargett]

» When you have a good quality rum like this one how do you have it ?

» Straight up? chilled ? with ice ? I'm interested to know.

i use one of those riedel O series glasses, the ones with no stems. don't like them for wine but they make superb spirits glasses. normally use a reasonable amount of ice. but that is all.

[cvm4]

I usually throw a couple ice cubes in there and that's it.

[Jimmy2]

Like mine over ice .

Zacapa 23 i LOVE this stuff drank a bottle at a lounge events a while back.

Another rum i like is Diplomatico out of Venezuela.

Also heard Angostura,Santa Teresa 1796,Flor de Cano 18 and Zaya Gran Reserva are great rums to.

Another but rae rum that i heard is great is Vizcaya VXOP and i think its out of DR.

[wp2]

» tried this with the bolivar gold medal. worked very well. i thought this

» was a seriously fabulous rum, though an expensive one. here we are paying

» $130 to $150 a bottle. opened with smoky honey notes, orange rind and

» spice. wonderfully complex. obviously mature with aged material. a rum of

» absolute class. thick and dense flavours, fire and ice. very long finish

» but a clean one. i'm sure that it made the cigar taste better than it

» might have otherwise.

Dayum ken, expensive stuff over there. I go to Jamaica at least once a year & always bring back at least 1 bottle of Appleton. Great taste in all their offerings. If you make it to the US east coast (NY-Philly area) I'll have a bottle for you.