Mount Gay XO Extra Old Rum

Labeled as Mt Gay XO Triple Barrel Blend, I'm assuming this is the correct listing. This is from a 3 rum sampler from Flaviar. Tasted neat from a glencairn. The pour is a brassy walnut and shows significant sheeting and slow tears on a swirl. I'm thinking this might have a rich and creamy mouthfeel. The nose is very tempting with rich butterscotch, maple sugar, creme brulee, brioche, and a bit of baking spice. It's quite complex and devoid of unruly ethanol or acetone notes. Quite a nice nose all around! I'm looking forward to a sip! The taste profile of this rum is in line with it's aromas. It has the rich mouthfeel promised in the swirl. There's a bit of over ripe banana, some bitter banana skin, turbinado sugar, ripe dates, caramel, slight cafe au lait, vanilla and maple. The finish is short and marked with a bit of allspice, dark chocolate and a sweet egg bread like massa sovada. I like this rum. It's a nice sipper. It could definitely benefit from a higher proof. According to the interwebs, this was discontinued in mid 2020 but it's possible this is a new expression? In looking around I see this listed at about $65 locally. It's not better than Foursquare Sagacity (not close) and that bottle is only about $10 more (and now very hard to find), so I'm not going to stand in line to buy this. Value is a judgement, taste is taste - and this is a tasty rum in my judgement. Maybe its not the best value, but that's never stopped anyone from raving about Blanton's bourbon so there's that. This is better than average.

Nose: Fresh aromatic oak, vanilla, cinnamon and caramel. Smell it deeply and there's a whiff of ethanol. Orange peel in the background and over-ripe tropical fruit as it opens in the glass. It’s like a bourbon that sold the farm, retired to the tropics and went native. Palate: Sweet arrival but with heft. There is some hot cinnamon and clove spice together with bitter orange peel and oak tannin at the start, but it settles down into dark fruity notes, mocha coffee and tobacco. The texture is full and pleasantly dry rather than cloying. Finish: Long, sharp and spicy, with barrel notes and a long trail of vanilla in the back of the palate. The only overt note that declares emphatically this is rum is a touch of brown sugar or molasses in the finale. A nicely balanced Bajan rum that is good value for money. You could slip this into a whiskey tasting session and I bet some people would think, at least initially, that it was a rye-heavy bourbon with a slightly unusual profile. It’s fragrant and sweet on the nose with wood presentation that many whiskey (and whisky) distillers would love to attain. I don’t know whether Mount Gay add any sweetening, but if they do it is moderate and appropriate to the profile. This stands up to neat sipping but also works very well in cocktails or mixed drinks calling for a dark rum (it makes a killer Cuba Libre). "Good" : 84/100 (3.75 stars)

4.5/5. On the heal of a bottle I purchased summer of last year. This has to be the most addictive rum I've had so far. So much to me that I drink it sparingly so that I always have more available without breaking the bank with an entire cabinet of bottles. It's like a cross breed of a Barbados rum and a Jamaican rum and absolutely delicious. It tastes like raw sugar cane, cola, nutmeg, clove, hint of vanilla and molasses taffy... Not sure at all how this ended up getting an 83, I find that score almost insulting for something that tastes this good. Perhaps I lucked out on a good bottle, but general consensus seems to be in-line with my sentiments. I purchased another bottle several months later so maybe I'll give an update on the batch variation, but if it tastes like this I'll give it 4.5 stars all day....And night. Thoroughly satisfying sipping rum for my palate. I prefer it to El Dorado 21 by a large margin and it's a 3rd of the price.

Nose: Warm cedar and oak, cola, well done toast and slight maple. Body: Medium to full bodied. Spice is delayed when first sipped but emerges after the first taste and lingers on the tip of the tongue. Can taste some good age here (manufacturer claims 8-15 years). Taste: First notes consist of dark chocolate, followed by the spice of black pepper, clove, and tobacco. Finish consists of burnt caramel as the sweetness is subdued by the bitter side as it goes down. Overall: Enough maturity and sophistication to make it a decent sipper. Too much complexity to waste as a mix, but can be a little too bold to add to sipping rotation for more novice rum drinkers. Overall a good starter rum for those looking to get acquainted with the more serious rums.

As the title says, this is my first sipping rum. I've only had rum in mixed drinks and decided that it's time for me to grow up and have some big boy drinks. Hehe. I decided to start with this one since it is often seen as a standard for tasting rum. Overall I'm happy with my decision. I smell fruit and spice. It's a little sweet smelling. I don't get the banana that others report, but that's good since I hate banana. On my tongue, I get some spiciness, mainly pepper. I also detect some fruit, but my palate isn't refined enough yet to narrow it down. I'll be judging all future rums against this one.

Sometimes I like to pull out my rums from Barbados to transport me back to beautiful beaches, warm smiles and hospitality. Mount Gay Rum is a point of pride for most Bajans. Their distillery has been operating for over 3 centuries, so they know a thing or two about rum. The Mount Gay XO has a cola-meets-oak spiced nose with a pretty short, dry, clove and black pepper taste. My favorite part is its long, bourbon-like warm finish that makes this spirit better while you continue to drink it. Best on ice. 7.5/10.