Top Rums For Your Rum Old Fashioned

Highly regarded U.K. independent rum bottler Mezan now exports some of their gems to the U.S. The first wave of releases includes the Jamaica XO, a blend of rums from several distilleries, and with no age statement other than an XO designation. It’s created in batches of 5000, and batches may vary in their source rum ratios. After blending, the Jamaica XO undergoes additional aging in used American oak barrels. There’s no sugar or coloring added to this rum, a hallmark of the Mezan lineup.

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.

Flor de Caña was founded in 1890 near the base of San Cristóbal Volcano, the highest and one of the most active volcanoes in Nicaragua. The brand's rums are produced from molasses from estate-grown sugarcane. American white oak barrels formerly used to age bourbon are used to age the rum. The 18 listed on the bottle isn't an age statement, but rather indicates an average of the rums used.

This Haitian rhum is produced using fresh sugarcane juice. Originally this was reserved for friends and family, but in the 1960's Barbancourt released this product for sale. Their rhums are aged in French Limousin oak 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.

Domaine de l’Acajou on Martinique was purchased in the late 1880s by Homère Clément, who sought to produce rhum agricole after learning distillation techniques from brandy estates in France. Clément VSOP Rhum Agricole is distilled from fresh sugarcane juice in a single-column copper pot-still. It's aged a minimum of 4 years in a combination of new French Limousin oak and re-charred ex-bourbon casks.

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.

Novo Fogo cachaça begins with freshly cut, certified-organic, estate-grown sugarcane that is crushed within 24 hours of harvest and immediately fermented for no more than 18 hours. The Tanager (Portuguese for "little bird") is an expression that is aged in two different types of barrels. First, it is aged one year in Four Roses bourbon barrels that have been disassembled, sanded out and lightly re-toasted. Then that distillate is finished for 2 to 3 months in arariba (Brazilian zebra-wood), which imparts its red color.

This limited edition rum is created at the Mount Gay Distillery in Barbados by Master Blender Allen Smith. It is created using a blend of copper pot and copper column rums ranging from 10-30 years of age. Released annually beginning in 2009, this rum batch has recently undergone an updated packaging and and was formerly known as 1703 Old Cask Selection. This release will have 12,000 bottles available worldwide.

The first in a line of new vintage products from Don Q. This 2005 vintage is a single barrel product aged in used American bourbon barrels. In an effort to stay true to their endeavor of creating a true single barrel product the rum is only blended with water for proofing and no other rums are used in the blending process.