XXX/Five Saint Catherine Jamaica 2 Year

Rating: 8/23 I normally think of Jamaican rums having been aged for quite a while. This, on the other hand, is only 2 years old. Not quite new-make, but at 65% ABV and only 2 years of age, it's the closest I've seen to white dog among Jamaican rums. Color me intrigued. N: Definitely a lot of alcohol, but it has a clean profile. There's a lot of sort of vegetal funk mixed with sweet sugar cane and molasses to create a bold hogo. I get a hint of charred meat. There are some indistinct spices as well and a hint of wood. Finally, I get hints of tropical fruit, with mango and pineapple being the biggest players. P: Loads of tropical fruit! Mango, pineapple, orange, lime, banana. Then that blackstrap molasses hogo bitter funk comes out, after which it turns kind of vegetal and the clean sugar cane flavor makes its way through. There's a lot of burn here, but at 65% ABV that is just a fact of life. A tiny bit of wood bitterness with a touch of ash. Some sort of spices, but they're hard to place. F: Lingering burn with mango, orange, lime, banana (not so much pineapple) and blackstrap molasses. - Conclusion - In comparison, Pusser's Gunpowder Proof (15/23) is smoother, more bitter, and more refined. This has so much more nice fruit though. If it just came down to the flavors, I'd probably declare this the winner, but considering the intense burn here, I unfortunately have to say that the Pusser's is the clear winner. This burn is about on the level of my cask strength bottle of Ry3 (9/23). Both this and the Ry3 have pretty good flavors. I'd say that this has more of an alcohol bite to its burn, but the Ry3 is harsher, if that makes sense. Buffalo Trace White Dog Mash #1 (11/23) definitely doesn't burn as much as this does - and the Buffalo Trace burns a lot. The flavor quality is also pretty comparable. This is quite close in quality to the Ry3; not so close to the Buffalo Trace. There's a lot of potential here and this could be great mixed in something, but it just burns so much that even watered down a bit it's a difficult neat pour. I might even take the Ry3 over this. It's going to be an 8 or 9, unfortunately. This burns too much. I'm going with an 8.