Rum: More than 100 of the world’s best rums. Dominic Roskrow

Bacardi Gran Reserva Maestro de Ron

      PRODUCER: Bacardi Brown Forman

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Puerto Rico

      VARIETY: Premium white rum

      ABV: 40.0%

      WEBSITE: www3.bacardi.com

      Bacardi doesn’t sit on its laurels, and over the years has launched different bottlings for different audiences. This Gran Reserva is a brave and confident take on super premium rum, and is an attempt to encourage rum to be sipped. Launched into travel retail, it has been well received. It is said to be inspired by a recipe passed down through generations of master blenders using a slow-filtering of the blended rum – aged up to three years – through a coconut shell charcoal, creating a smooth rum. The colour from this process has been stripped out, and presumably some of the flavour has, but this is still great: fruity, floral, and with vanilla notes and hints of walnut, oak and almond. Overall it is mellow, with slightly sweet notes.

Bacardi Superior Ron Heritage

      PRODUCER: Bacardi Brown Forman

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Puerto Rico

      VARIETY: Premium white rum

      ABV: 44.5%

      WEBSITE: www3.bacardi.com

      This is a very limited expression of Bacardi, with only 7,500 cases being released in 2009. It marks the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Daiquiri in America. The cocktail was created in Cuba using Bacardi as its base, as the company was still based there in 1909. This is said to be a recreation of the original Bacardi, and it comes in a replica of the original bottle from that time. The rum itself is a richer, fuller rum than Bacardi’s current standard rum, and is bottled at the same strength as it was in 1909. This is a tasty rum that can be drunk over ice. You’ll find cinnamon and other spices, baked apple and sweet pear.

Basseterre Guadeloupe 1995

      PRODUCER: Montebello / Carrère

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe

      VARIETY: Dark rum

      ABV: 58.2%

      WEBSITE: www.facebook.com/RhumMontebello

      Guadeloupe has several respected rum distillers and this one – called Carrère but better known as Montebello – is one of the best. It was founded in 1930 and has been thriving ever since. With about 25 employees, it is not a small distillery, but all of the fermentation, distillation, ageing, and bottling is done under the close supervision of the Marsolle family. The estate has only 15 hectares of cane today, so most of the year-old cane is bought from farmers in the Petit-Bourg area. Beautifully packaged and very much at the premium end of the rum market, Basseterre Guadeloupe was distilled at Montebello in 1995. A blend of agricole and molasses rums bottled at cask strength, this has notes of cumin, liquorice and lemon.