Today we are interested in a rum from the Dominican Republic: Atlantico rum. It is produced by Oliver & Oliver, an independent bottler whose main activity is the creation of blends/assemblies of rum aged using the solera method (among their brands: Cubaney, Quorhum, OpthimuS, Unhiq). Oliver & Oliver therefore created this rum for the occasion, at the request of the Atlantico firm based in Miami. This was followed by a great advertising campaign across the Atlantic, which we luckily more or less escaped, despite the displeasure of fans of Enrique Iglesias, a sort of muse of the brand... caliente!

Price : between 45 and 50€ for this rum with a strength of 40°. Or even a little 35€ if you look further…

Age : this would be a blend of rums ranging from 15 to 25 years old, but it is actually much more complex than that…

Because like any good solera, it is difficult to really know how long and how the rum has actually aged... by digging a little, we can find contradictory information here and there: blend of two or three different rums, an average age that fluctuates between 10 and 20 years or even between 15 and 25 years...

Let's take a moment to try to understand...
Atlantico starts by "selecting" young rums (let's say two) aged 3 to 5 years, which they then decide to blend for a second aging stage (for 1 year): we obtain the famous 'private cask'. The result is then integrated into an already existing stock of rums aged using the solera method (rums aged between 10 and 20 years). This is how to 'trick' the consumer by selling a rum for what it is not: a rum aged 15 to 25 years. It is at most 7 or 8 years old... honestly, can you imagine a rum of this age sold for €35 a bottle?

Once in the glass, the rum has a fairly heavy color, mahogany in color and with slightly orange highlights ; during work, very thick legs appear and the drops that form seem to evolve in slow motion. No greenish disk on the surface, which one might expect for a rum that claims to be so old.

The nose is very creamy and delicious. Vanilla galore, caramel that turns to maple syrup, honey and a light woody rather smoky and some spices (including ginger very present). For the fruitiness we easily note the presence of lemon, more in the form of zest. It is more reminiscent of a liqueur than a rum… The nose is very sweet but something artificial stands out very clearly.

The attack is just as delicious and mellow, mainly on caramel and honey. The vanilla is back with an aroma even more artificial than on the nose and will unfortunately never disappear... It's surprising, you'd think you were drinking liquid vanilla concentrate, the one used in cakes, it's too imposing to be appreciated. There's a little woody something in the background but nothing that really stands out with all that sugar.

The finish appears rather long and still as syrupy, without much change compared to the rest . Some spices try hard to impose themselves but we barely have time to notice that the rum has completely disappeared. Only a sweet and pasty note remains in the mouth, requiring a good glass of water to disappear.

Caramel, vanilla and honey, that's all that really comes out of this tasting. It's sweet but much too syrupy and sugary to be enjoyed as is. The almost total absence of wood reminds us once again of the deception of this rum which is light years away from being aged "15 to 25 years". Cocktail lovers may find this an acceptable base, but it's certainly not a tasting rum... I'm always amazed to see this kind of product achieve a certain "success" and even win medals at competitions. Score: 55

To help you (and me) find your way around, regarding the notes:

90 and + : exceptional and unique rum, it is the best of the best
between 85 and 89 : highly recommended rum, with that little something that makes the difference
between 80 and 84 : recommendable rum
75-79 POINTS : above average
70-74 POINTS : in the low average
less than 70 : not very good

Review courtesy of DuRhum.com.

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