Top Notch Gold Rums

Tiburón is produced in a family-run distillery on the island of Belize. The molasses-based spirit is made in a column still and blended from rums aged a minimum of 4 years individually in ex-bourbon barrels. The selected rums are then blended and given a second maturation to marry before bottling.

As the name indicates, the rum is copper pot-distilled, using a still known as "The Old Copper”, the only one of its kind in Australia. As Beenleigh says, it was modified a long time ago by “an old German Guy”. After the distillation, it is aged in ex-brandy vats, before being finished in charred American oak barrels for a minimum aging of two years in total. It is crafted with local ingredients. Sold in 1L-sized bottles with availability in western US (at 40% ABV) and in 700ml-sized bottles (at 38% ABV) in Australia.

The number "7" on the Banks bottle does not signify this rum's age, rather it is the number of lands from which it is sourced. Twenty-three different rums from eight distilleries are sourced from 7 locations: Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, Guatemala, Panama and Java. Bottled at 43% ABV.

Matusalem is a brand originating in Cuba that moved to the Dominican Republic upon the Cuban revolution, and is now produced there by a third-part distiller. Made from molasses, it is aged solera-style in used whiskey and bourbon barrels for an average of 10 years.

From Plantation Rums comes Plantation Xaymaca Special Dry, an amber 100% Jamaican Pot Still release meant to evoke rums made on the island in the 19th century. It is a blend of rums distilled at Long Pond and Clarendon distilleries using a variety of rum marques -- essentially, different "recipes" each distillery has to produce different styles of rums which range from very light to most intense. The rums are double aged, first in ex-bourbon from 1-3 years in a tropical setting before being sent to France to further age in ex-cognac casks for an additional year. There is zero dosage (no sugar added) before bottling. Xaymaca [za-may-kah] is the original name of Jamaica used by its first inhabitants, the Arawaks.

London-based Elements Eight Rum Company is a private label brand sourcing their rum from St. Lucia Distillers, the same distillery behind Chairman’s Reserve and Admiral Rodney. The gold rum is a blend of ten rums made from Guyanese molasses. Some of the constituent rums are pot-stilled, the remaining are column-stilled. Although there’s no official age statement, the company’s web site claims six years of tropical aging. The Elements Eight lineup also includes silver, spiced, and cacao-flavored rums.

Santa Teresa holds the honor as being the world's first solera-style rum; a style that has grown in popularity especially among rums produced on former Spanish colonies. This is made with a blend of rums aged in American oak cask for up to five years.

Berkshire Mountain Distillers Ragged Mountain Rum is made in Great Barrington, Massachusetts at the Berkshire’s first legal distillery since Prohibition. Ragged Mountain Rum is a traditional pot-still style of rum, hand-crafted in small batches and aged in used bourbon barrels.

Made from regional sugarcane syrup and molasses, St. Augustine is fermented, aged and pot-distilled on site in the eponymous city. It is bottled at 45% ABV. The resulting color is pale straw.

Produced at the first legal distillery on Cape Cod since prohibition, Twenty Boat Cape Cod Amber is handcrafted at the site of Truro Vineyards. It consists of American organic sugarcane and is aged in chardonnay barrels. The name Twenty Boat refers to a 1930 event in which the twenty boats kept watch in Provincetown in an effort to capture a rum runner.