I come from the Scotch side of things. My S/O likes rum a lot more, so I got into sipping rums about half a year back. Still new to this (even more so than Scotch), but I think I have enough experience with tasting spirits to be confident of my tasting notes.

This is a single cask bottled by LMDW under its Rum of the World series for the 50th anniversary of the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. The hotel bar, the Origin Bar, is in my top 10 for cocktail bars. Rum-focused with a great collection, but also a very diverse menu of punchy drinks executed with great finesse using other spirits. Origin Bar sells it for barely more than cost price, given local alcohol taxes and overheads to anyone who visits the bar - highly-recommended for anyone who wants a souvenir from Singapore.

The rum is 6.5yo, comprising 2.3 years of tropical aging and 4.2 years of continental aging in an ex-cognac cask.

Distillery: Undisclosed

Region: Fiji

Price: 150SGD/~108USD

Cask Type: Ex-cognac

ABV: 55.17%

Chill-filtered: No

Color: 0.4, jonquil/ripe corn (natural colour).

Rested for ~15 minutes, before drunk neat in a glencairn.

Nose: Aloe vera, tomato juice, dates, hint of bacon fat just starting to caramelise.

Palate: Moderate texture, Youth shows through here. Tomato juice, tart apple cider, sweet lemonade, hint of thyme and lemongrass.

Finish: Surprisingly long. Aloe vera emerges again, but also wheat, rice crackers, vanilla ice-cream and mushy apples.

Conclusion: A very good young rum - clean, tart, then earthy-sweet and savoury, then herbal. But the youth also shines through in the slightly hot edge it has, though it could do a lot worse at 55% ABV. Still a decent value given the presentation of the rum.

If it were named by the SMWS: Nice to Me Too

Score: 83

Rum Review #1

H.Y.