Rum Gifts For Mother's Day

Named for a character in Charles Dickens’ “The Pickwick Papers,” the Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy Rum began as a one-off collaboration between Alexandre Gabriel and cocktail historian David Wondrich. The demand was strong enough that Plantation made it a proper release. Pineapple rinds are infused with their Plantation 3 Stars Rum for one week, then pot distilled. The fruit is separately steeped in Plantation Original Dark Rum for three months. The two liquids are blended and the resulting Pineapple Rum is rested in casks for three months before bottling.

Cuban rum distillers or “maestros” have been drinking their own extra-aged rums for years, but this release marks the beginning of this style of rum to the general public. At its core is Cuban sugarcane turned into molasses or "mieles." The entire production process for this rum takes at least 14 years, with the youngest drops having aged a minimum of 7 years. This is achieved by aging individual barrels instead of using the more popular solera method. Note: This is not currently available in the U.S.

Zaya Gran Reserva was previously made in Guatemala but is now produced in Trinidad & Tobago. This product formerly had an age statement of 12 years, but now the bottle simply has the number "12" displayed on its bottles. That number is to indicate that Zaya Gran Reserva is made from a blend of 12 rums which aged in medium-charred used whiskey barrels.

Plantation Barbados 5 Year Rum is a blend of pot still and column still Bajan rums that are aged in bourbon casks for 3-4 years in the Caribbean. The blend is then finished in French oak casks at Maison Ferrand’s Château de Bonbonnet in the heart of the Grande Champagne district for 1-2 years more. Note: Formerly called Plantation Grande Reserve 5 Year.

El Dorado has been produced at Demerara Distillers Limited since 1992 on Guyana. The 15 Year is a blend of aged demerara rums, some as old as 25 years, made in different styles of stills - Enmore and Diamond Coffey stills, Port Mourant double-wooden-pot-still and Versailles single-wooden-pot-still. The rums are blended and aged in ex-bourbon casks.

While Guyana was once home to many distilleries making rums from local Demerara sugar, consolidation has brought all the country’s rum-making capacity under Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL). DDL’s house brand, El Dorado, spans more than a dozen expressions ranging from white “well” rum to high-end, twenty-five-year aged rums. El Dorado 12 is the entry level of their Luxury Cask Aged lineup, and is a blend of rums from three different stills, all aged for at least twelve years.

Appleton Estate is one of the oldest brands of rums on the market having been established in 1779. The estate where the sugarcane is harvested, processed, distilled, and aged encompasses over 11,000 acres in Nassau Valley, Jamaica. American ex-bourbon barrels are used for aging, which in this case, is for a minimum of 12 years. Note: This was formerly known as Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year. The name was changed in mid 2015.

The Extra Old was released to mark Alexandre Gabriel’s 20th anniversary at the helm of Cognac Ferrand. The Extra Old showcases Plantation’s oldest Bajan rum reserves, aged for 12-20 years in bourbon casks. The selected rums are blended at Château de Bonbonnet in France and finished in small French oak casks for 12-18 months.

Ron Zacapa 23 Sistema Solera Rum was first produced in 1976 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Guatemalan town of Zacapa. It's a rum made from raw sugarcane honey grown on the Zacapa estate high in the hills of Guatemala, extracted from the first pressing of sugarcane juice. It is then fermented using a proprietary strain of pineapple yeast and distilled in a copper-lined column still. After distillation, the rum is aged in a Solera process from a series of casks which once held bourbon, oloroso sherry and Pedro Ximenez sherry. The rums in the blend vary between 6 and 23 years of age.

This is the Venezuelan distillery’s flagship rum, called “exclusiva” as a tribute to their 18th century founder Don Juancho Nieto Meléndez, who was always in search of exclusive flavors for his rums. It’s a blend of 12 year old copper pot-still rums made from both molasses and sugarcane honey, aged in ex-bourbon barrels.