Rum Pre-Review: Ron Viejo de Caldas 8 yo

[Capn Jimbo]

Ron Viejo de Caldas 8 yo: a Cane Juice Style


Ron Viejo de Caldas has become notable hereabouts for a couple good reasons:

1. It was misidentified as a molasses rum by the Shillery, and actually earned a couple of awards for same. Amazing! You'd think that the Preacher - who reps a couple of minor AOC branded CJ rums - would know the difference.

2. It was a mislabeled product, and a rather decent one, that caused us to doubt our abilitiies. We both swore it was cane juiced base, but bordering also on the Cuban style.

We then wrote to de Caldas and received a reply from the distiller that made clear their product was indeed made of cane juice, and made by a Cuban distiller in the Cuban fashion.

We were sane after all! And it was surely a delicious contradiction that Mr. AOC, the Preacher, had both misclassified and awarded it. Doesn't get any better than that.


As far as Ron Viejo de Caldas...

We are very interested in tasting an eight year old version of a young cane juice rum that scored quite well, despite its bottom shelf position. A real best buy. Compare to most AOC cane juice rums that are typically much younger. And to compare to the nearly incomparable Barbancourt Five Star, also aged to eight years, right in the middle of what we think is the sweet spot for aging.

Stay tuned...


*******
Capn's Log: This rum review has finally been published in the Cane Juice section.

[da'rum]

I'd be interested in your thoughts, at 37.5% abv it raised half an eyebrow for me.

[Capn Jimbo]

Good question!


dR, I'm curious as to where you buy your rum. 'Round this part of Paradise, high test is sold at 40% or higher for the most part, including the Ron Viejo de Caldas.

The original, bottom shelf version that caused us so much consternation and pride, was the bottom shelf 3 yo, reviewed (here).. It received our score of "7", really quite solid for a rum that sells for maybe $10, and a "best buy", not to mention worth having for a fairly unique profile.

I have to be honest (for once) and admit that we snuck a taste of the 8 year old version, and at first impression it will do better, I think...

[da'rum]

http://www.rumundco.de/Rum/Ron-Viejo-de ... -2883.html

This particular shop has been known to make small errors in listing. I haven't bought a bottle of this, yet.

[da'rum]

https://www.weinquelle.com/artikel/Ron_ ... 905_e.html

and again

[Capn Jimbo]

Not to tease, but...


We finally did complete our review of Ron Viejo de Caldas 8yo, and it just keeps improving. When we pre-tasted it we were quite impressed - and discussed the notion that this cane juice rum was getting into Barbancourt territory.

Let me leave with the fact that when we did our real review, as always we included similar and reference rums, in this case Caldas' 3yo - and - Barbancourt Five Star. The latter is a challenging comparison since the Five Star is almost without equal, still the Caldas 8 was getting into that territory.

Stay tuned...

[NCyankee]

Not sure if I had mentioned it but I found a retailer in Cali that has the 3 yr for $8 and the 8 yr for $10.

(LINK)

Haven't gotten around to ordering from them yet because they have a lot of good prices and it will be hard to keep my order from getting out of hand.

I know it doesn't do you any good down in Florida as far as shipping so sorry about that

[John Willy]

NCYankee,
Thanks for the link. Had them in my shopping cart, BUT damn just couldn't pull the trigger. I just have too many bottles unopened. I have to start sipping before I start buying again. At the rate I consume I will probably be dead before I finish what I have. I think I will request my rum go with me when I am incinerated.
Regards,
John