Rating: 16/23 There is much love out there for this rum, but I've generally found it to be too sweet. Not bad, but too sweet. I'm hoping that this will come across as more complex and less sweet this time. N: The nose is oddly full of youthful esters. I largely get rubber and an alcohol bite. I'm quite surprised. and pretty dismayed. Giving it some time, almost-ripe banana and a squeeze of orange start coming out and I get a real sweetness. Faint powdered sugar and a hint of caramel. The esters are still there though. This now seems like a decent youthful nose, but not a good one overall. P: So much tropical fruits. Banana, lime, pineapple, papaya, mango. It's quite sweet, but there's a restraining layer to it that's very helpful. I get some classic rum richness and charred barrel with a little bit of mollasses and caramel. Quite a nice palate, actually, This is great. It isn't perfect by any means, but this is both decadent and complex. There is still the matter of those esters though. They come through largely as the lime, which is a relief, but especially after smelling this for so long I can't totally miss them. F: The sweetness lingers and the esters largely fade away It's kind of a slat finish with caramel and molasses sweetness taking over, with a thin layer of tropical fruit. - Conclusion - I'm a bit torn on this one. There are some really nice flavors, but it's way too sweet and has a little bit of ester going on that isn't great. Honestly, the esters alone would stop this from getting a full 23, but the excessive sweetness really brings this down to the point that the esters aren't so relevant. Plantation Trinidad 12 (2003) (21/23) absolutely creams this. It's far more complex, without any weird esters, while possessing greater balance and a sweet decadence even side-by-side with this, yet not an overwhelming level of sweetness like this has. El Dorado 21 (21/23) is much drier and more bitter than this, with greater maturity, but not the same level of fullness as this and the Plantation Trinidad. It lets less alcohol show through though and is still more complex than this. And also definitely more enjoyable. On the other hand, Plantation 20th Anniversary (17/23 somehow) isn't is complex as this, yet's it's also quite sweet and has a bit of esters. Actually, the Plantation 20th has more esters than this and is otherwise less interesting. I must have rated it too highly. Going a bit further afield, Privateer Navy Yard (17/23) has perhaps a hint of esters, but not as much as this has. It's also quite sweet, but in a different way, emphasizing natural vanilla wood sweetness with a really nice sawdust character to it as well. It's just super decadent. Doorly's 12 (17/23), while a bit light in flavor, executes a better rum profile with a balanced sweetness. I can see an argument for putting this on the same level, but I'm not really all that convinced. After all of these tastings, I'm thinking a 16 to 17 for this. Panamá-Pacific 23 (16/23) has much more maturity than this, with that kind of vanilla wood coming through. Also, there are no esters or big funky notes to it. This is more interesting and dynamic, but the Panamá-Pacific is more mature and refined. Honestly though, the two are pretty close. I might lean slightly toward the Panamá-Pacific, but I'm thinking that this is going to land on a 16. The Panamá-Pacific is giving me cleaner, duller, Privateer Navy Yard vibes mixed with sort of sweet and bitter rum syrup, water, and ethanol. That all sounds way worse than it is. The Panamá-Pacific is actually pretty close to the Privateer, but the Privateer wins out on the grounds of just being a bit more interesting. This is slightly more vegetal too, which is surprising. I had the Panamá-Pacific on the higher end of a 16, so this all checks out pretty well.