Kirk and Sweeney 12 Year Rum

Primarily been using this as a rum varietal for cocktails and figured I'd jot some notes before killing it off. Labeled as "12 year" not "12 reserva" , so precedes the NAS change. Attractive, unique, and eye-catching bottle design. Nostalgic un-headed cork stopper is quite cute but also annoyingly tedious to grip well enough to pry out - perhaps I should channel my inner Jack Sparrow and do so with my teeth to achieve maximum levels of nonchalant swagger. Neat. Glencairn. Attractive coppery honey color. A hint of oily body and very patient, slow legs. Pungent with a full aroma, but ultimately flat and uninteresting. Extremely strong vanilla, but little accompanying sweetness = vanilla extract. More ethanol than I would have expected for the low proof and (supposedly accurate) long aging. Little to no fruit. Maybe a molecule or two that never quite became spiced pear but had aspired to as adolescents? Lots more vanilla on the palate accented by citrus peel - orange, mostly, plus some grapefruit and lemon. A modest but nice and buttery mouthfeel. Sweeter than the nose, but still pleasantly on the drier side. A touch of bitter burnt sugar. Some "used-to-be-melon" notes disappointingly overrun by the vanilla. Tart/tangy lingers in the cheeks. Can't shake the "rummy" descriptor - in this instance, not a compliment (think Bacardi silver), but perhaps unsurprising for a Spanish-style rum. It's a little rougher than it should be for the price point, but the biggest knock is the bland and somewhat disjointed flavor profile. Drinkable, but uninspired and one-note. This isn't overoaked, but honestly i think I might have preferred less barrel time to discover some of the tropical fruits that I'm sure used to be there - many younger and cheaper rums will outperform this. Try Appleton 8 for affordable aged rum goodness.

The nose begins with deep vanilla bean, not--mind you--vanilla wafers or vanilla icing but a bold, dark whole Madagascar vanilla bean that makes no compromises. After the vanilla bomb subsides, there is butterscotch pudding, creme de leche, toasted marshmallow, sweet tobacco and cane sugar. The palate is mouth-coating, syrupy sweet with milk cocoa, butter creme, sweet oak, meringue, cinnamon sugar, and fleeting hints of new leather and brown raisins. Finish continues with the vanilla and an additional wallop of green sugar cane. There are some other fudgy and dessert notes such as bananas foster and Boston cream pie, but this is largely the vanilla's show. Aside from a faint banana-clove note in the finish (married to a maple syrupy note), the fruit and citrus contributions are subdued. The sweetness never subsides, making this unapologetically a digestif.

The brand here comes with some clout. Came recommended. I really dig the bottle. It’s piratey and fun to palm. The cork lets out a nice THOONK sound and I feel satisfied. But then after that I’m confused. First of all didn’t this used to say 12 “year” on the bottle? Now it just says 12 reserva. That would be fun if it tasted the way it used to buy it doesn’t come close and it can’t just be my imagination. Overwhelming vanilla extract flavor that no way came from wood sugars. Fake as fuck. Kirk. Sweeney. Whoever you imposters are, give us the original recipe back and you can have your old reputation back. Until then I won’t be touching your scurvy swill. So there.

On the eye, this is lighter than most 12 year old rums. The nose is predominantly vanilla, with the slightest hint of spice. On the palate, the vanilla is still predominant and the hint is spice intensifies a bit. There is a stronger alcohol burn that feels slightly hotter than 80 proof. All in all, this is a pleasant sipper, but it lacks the a Jamaican “funk”. They really need to improve their cork. It is hard to remove, and I ended up with bits of the paper seal in the bottle.

I am not by any means the most experienced rum drinker. I come from drinking Scotch, Irish, Japanese whisky and Bourbon. But for roughly $30 this is a great sipper. It’s very vanilla forward almost overpowering with vanilla extract sweetness. But buried underneath there’s toasted pecans, lemon zest, barrel char and earthy black tea notes. It’s not complex but for $30 and a 12 year age statement there’s really not much to complain about.

Lightly sweet and spicy. Lightly floral and bright. Enjoy this more the longer I layer on its medium finish. My only knock on it is that it lacks a roundness of character to the taste profile. However, it is very enjoyable in its simplicity and nuances of vanilla. Will definitely walk up Kirk & Sweeny's age offering to adventure more based on my enjoyment of this bottle.