Havana Club Selección de Maestros Rum

Rating: 16/23 N: It's a bit difficult to pick out smells, bit it's fruity with a funkiness to it. It's sweet, but with a dry maturity keeping it from going overboard. Quite tropical and pretty mellow. Some wood and light smoke, but not a ton. Definitely orange among the fruits. Banana and perhaps mango as well. If I dig real deep I get a faint salty savoriness like soy sauce. A touch of vanilla is here too. P: Dry but rich with an underlying sweetness. Moderate body. Lots of tropical fruit flavors (pineapple, orange, banana, maybe mango) beneath a woody layer with a little bit of fireworks and a surprisingly substantial burn. Vanilla and caramel sweetness. This is complex and fun, but a bit lacking in balance. It's also a tad hot for the proof while also being a bit watery. Holding it on my tongue, the complexity swirls a bit though. F: That dryness and burn remain. The sweetness is more caramel than fruity at this point. Some vanilla. - Conclusion - I wanted to love this, but 8 can't overlook its problems. It's too hot for the proof and it's also watery. There's some nice complexity, but it doesn't really cohere. I'm looking at a 15 to 16. I'll give it a 16 for that fun, funky, swirly complexity. This rum is flawed in many ways, but it still has some really nice elements.

I have a collection of 4 Havana Club rums bought directly from Cuba. I tried them in the order depending on what their smelling inspired to my. This rum is the last one I tried. The nose is not very strong, and I only found very light spicy and woundy smells. So, the forth day, I taste this rum. I opened the bottle and smelled it. It was not very inspiring to me. Then, I put few milliliters in my mouth. I immediately minded the harmoniousness of this beverage. Its robust but smooth woundy taste, coupled to a sparkling and delicate spicy savor was memorable. From far my favorite rum.

As successor to Barrel Proof, this bottle deserve some attention. To start with bottle itself, it looks very very nice. Such a fabulous bottle! So we are stepping up here form Barrel Proof decent, but beautiful, old school design. As content - the rum - Selección is very delicious. It isn't as perfectly refined as Barrel Proof, but it is hell a lot delicious! Taste is complex, on the sweeter side, with all finesse you'd expect from very good aged rum.

On the nose, rich fruity-spicy mix. On the palate richly fruity and right after woody, tanninic notes comes. Meduim bodied and it's like a bourbon-single malt marriage. It went well with almonds;)

On the nose Orange peel brown sugar crumble topping. The initial sip revealed cinnamon, orange, molasses, with some baking spice. A medium finish with quite a nice balance.

Nose is more friendly than the oily woody palate and agricole overall style and finish. Harsh but very good. Not a kid’s rum. 22-23-22-22=89