Despite hearing a lot of great things about Privateer over the past year or so, I resisted buying a bottle to give it a try.  The distillery is about a 40-minute drive from our home, giving me the opportunity to sample before buying,   A couple of weekends ago, while the event cancellations were starting to pour in but before social distancing was a catchphrase, my wife and I decided we needed to get out of the house and do something fun.  Off to Privateer! To summarize: the distillery tour was great, the distillery itself is beautiful, the Privateer folks are fanatical about creating great rum, and everything we sampled was exceptional.   Privateer's slogan is "True American Rum:", and they're dead set in their mission to create world-class rum.  Specially sourced molasses, no additives or sweeteners, meticulous distilling and aging processes, and weekly cleaning of the stills, for starters.  But perhaps the best evidence of what Privateer has achieved is this - Velier (if you're not familiar with Velier, it's an Italian bottler that selects and bottles rum from the world's finest distilleries, such as Hampden, Foursquare, and Caroni) will be bottling select Privateer casks soon. As for the Navy Rum, it had some stiff competition from the other rums we tried, but it was one of my favorites.  Just a bit of spice, and some great notes on both the nose and palate of brown sugar, tobacco, leather, and oak.  The oak may be the standout note.  I've seen other reviews that describe it as pencil-shavings, but to me, it's a crisp, dry oak burst that's I've never quite experienced elsewhere.  Beautiful.  My wife grabbed one of Privateer's recipe cards for a "Navy Yard Julip", and she whipped up a batch the following evening.  Although I'm really not a cocktail enthusiast, I was impressed with how well this rum held up to and complimented the mint and simple syrup. We left Privateer with six bottles, although it might have been more if not for the fact that the distillery is easily accessible (in addition to their core products, they have numerous "distiller's draw" limited editions).    Six bottles of really good craft spirits can be an expensive proposition, but our haul averaged just over $40 per bottle.   Excellent VFM, IMO. If you like rum and haven't tried Privateer yet, get some!   I also think Privateer would be a hit with whiskey enthusiasts who often find rum to be too sweet or syrupy.  Because there's no added sugar, the sweetness is kept in check while the barrel notes shine.