The world's best reviewers consider Barbancourt Five Star cane juice rum one of the very top rums in the world. That you can buy a world class rum for $20 or even a bit less is nothing short of amazing, particularly considering the mostly lower rated, but much, much higher priced AOC-branded rums. You pay an awful lot of money just to insert the "h" in "rhum", nicht vahr?
Yup.
Both the 4 yo Three Star and 8 yo Five Star can hold their own against all comers. Yet there are actually some worthy rums that also ought to be considered, namely the Ron Viejo de Caldas offerings from Columbia, made from cane juice (not molasses) by a Cuban style distillers. For some reason the Caldas' rums are promoted on the lower shelves at remarkable prices, say $12 to $20. The obvious question is how they stand up to the Barbancourt reference rums for the cane juice style.
For the answer, read on...
Sue Sea:
Jimbo: This is a fine rum, and an excellent example of what age can do, and almost perfectly illustrates the sweet spot - say 7 to 10 years - for aging in the Caribbean. In fact, we highly recommend a nice horizontal tasting comparing the Caldas 3yo, 8yo and finally, Barbancourt Five Star (8yo, our reference rum for the cane juice category). Doing so is highly educational and will add signficantly to your understanding of both the category and for aging in oak. Advanced tasters will appreciate the differences between Caldas' use of American oak with Barbancourt's French oak.I won't soon forget our first experience with the Ron Viejo de Caldas 3 yo, a bottom shelf rum that was misclassified elsewhere as a molasses rum, but which actually turned out to be a cane juice rum. It turns out the rum was confusingly labeled, and this Caldas actually won a couple of awards as a molasses rum.
But when Jimbo and I first tasted it, we both got the lasting impression that was a Cuban style, but also featuring cane juice qualities. Put that together with its label and awards and we were left confused and doubting our own abilities. Finally, Jim wrote the distiller, who confirmed its cane juice source, and that the master distiller was Cuban.
What a relief.
Ron de Caldas 8 yo is rich and hearty. Its opening aromas feature a smooth vanillan, and medium to dark fruits like raisin and prune, a baked nutbread sensation, a bit of oak, all over a distant earthiness. Rich is the word.
The early palate is rich, creamy, buttery and lightly sweet transitioning into a literal explosion of flavors including the deep fruits with typical rum spices - cinnamon, ginger and clove. Hearty is the word. The 8 yo comes to a well-integrated conclusion of a white pepper and and (sweet) clove finish. It was simply lovely, rich and robust.
While the Caldas 3yo is a less than clear golden in color, the 8yo presented as a brilliant amber with the notable green edge of aging. As far as my impressions go, Sue Sea and I are in near total agreement, with the exception that I noted a bit more medium fruit (think a deeper orange) and was first to pick up the earthiness (which she then confirmed). In sum the Ron de Caldas 8yo is extremely well integrated and consistent, sophisticated and smooth, and with a lovely balance of dry and sweet. Still, it is clear where the 8yo came from - the lighter, drier and edgier, more astringent and less complex and somewhat hotter 3yo.
The effects of an additional five years in good wood are notable. Compared to Barbancourt Five Star, the 8yo Caldas is sweeter, and a bit less cognac like. The Five Star also shows of the nuttiness of French Oak, while the Caldas sports the vanillan sweetness of American Oak. Personally, I recommend buying both the Caldas' - both the 3 and 8 year olds, for a dandy vertical tasting and learning experience.
While the 3yo is perhaps a bit too simple and dry, the 8 yo has really hit the sweet spot, both figuratively and literally. Buy it!
Scores (10 is best): solid 8.