Mount Gay Rum is easily one of the most recognisable rum brands for rum drinkers around the world; it’s one of those rums that starts people off proper on their rum journey, with its Eclipse and XO bottles often found on the shelves of most respectable bottle shops or grocery stores.

Amidst its core range lies a bottle known as the Black Barrel, named after the heavily charred ex-bourbon barrels that the rum is finished in during the last six months of its aging process. But to start from the beginning, the base rum does not differ greatly from all its other core releases, being a blend of pot and column still distillate and aged initially in ex-American whiskey casks. Yet the sample I have today from @rum_come_save_me isn’t just any regular Black Barrel - it is the distillery-exclusive annual release of the Black Barrel Cask Strength, bottled at a hefty 66% abv.

It had a really nice nose because I got all that fruitiness that usually comes with a Barbadian rum, those citrus, dried red fruits mainly, something I’d associate with hawthorn and goji berries. And at cask strength, the char from the toasted barrels seemed deeper, far more intense than its softer sibling, which gave the nose a very round and warm character, and most importantly an inviting one.

The palate was packed with rich and intense notes, with an abundance of bite and dryness that I can only assume stems from those heavily charred ex-bourbon casks. But once I got past the initial intensity, I started picking out wafts of vanilla, baking spices, and interestingly a tinge of savouriness that akin to drinking from a margarita glass with a salted rim. The finish was rather short, and the structure slightly lacking, but it was also here the fruitiness became more pronounced, with those hawthorn berries making an appearance, rich, lush caramel, snow pears, and a mild hint of lingering char.

Your occasional rum addict!

@weixiang_liu