PREMIUM RUM

Premium rum is not about pirates or sugar bombs. It is about time, technique, terroir, and producers who care about what they are doing. Shop some of the finest premium here at Master of Malt.

Our choices for 2026

Below are our picks for 2026. No filler. No fluff. These are real rums with backbone.

Across Martinique, Barbados, Venezuela, Jamaica, Guatemala, Grenada, Mauritius, and Cuba, rum has built a serious fine spirits culture. Explore here the effects of long tropical ageing, the difference between pot and column still production, the weight of cask strength, the complexity of solera maturation, and the raw identity of agricole.

Jamaican Rum

Appleton Estate 21 Year Old

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Tasting Notes

A spectacularly aged rum from Appleton Estate. This expression is made from carefully selected casks that have enjoyed a tropical maturation for a minimum of 21 years. Beautifully balanced, and with plenty of character and complex spice, this silky Jamaican rum is one to sip and savour.

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Martinican Rum

Clément L'Elixir

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Tasting Notes

A fabulous aged rhum agricole from Clément! Distilled on Martinique, the grassy spirit was then aged in French oak before it was bottled up in this handsome decanter, complete with cork stopper. A wonderfully smooth, spicy and subtly fruity expression to sip on a warm afternoon.

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Venezuelan Rum

Diplomático Single Vintage 2008

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Tasting Notes

The 2008 Single Vintage from Diplomático was distilled in 2008 and matured in bourbon and whisky casks before a finishing period in sherry wood. The extra cask work adds layers of dried fruit and spiced oak, giving it a darker, more contemplative profile than the core range.

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Guyanese Rum

El Dorado 21 Year Old Special Reserve

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Tasting Notes

The Special Reserve is made from rums of between 21 and 25 years of age, matured in 45-gallon oak casks, within six degrees of the equator in Guyana. El Dorado 21 is a perennial award-winner and a sure thing when it comes to gifting and sharing.

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BARBADOS Rum

Foursquare 15 Year Old 2005 Barbados Edition No. 7 - The Colours of Rum (Wealth Solutions)

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Tasting Notes

This 2005 vintage spent fifteen years in a bourbon cask before being bottled at a formidable 61.1% ABV for Wealth Solutions’ The Colours of Rum series. Just 272 bottles exist, and every one of them carries that unmistakable Foursquare signature of precision and power. No added sugar. No softening. Just pure Barbadian rum.

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BARBADOS Rum

Foursquare 17 Year Old 2006 (cask 104) - Bedford Park

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Tasting Notes

Another Foursquare, this time with a slightly different journey. Distilled in 2006, this blend of pot and column rum matured for fourteen years in American white oak in Barbados before being shipped to Europe for a final three-year stretch in a once-used bourbon barrel. The result is a 17-year-old rum bottled at cask strength, limited to 250 bottles.

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JAMAICAN Rum

Hampden The 8 Marks Collection

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Included

The opportunity for fans of rum from Jamaica's Hampden Estate to seriously geek out! This limited edition set contains eight 200ml bottles, each filled with one of the legendary distillery's various styles, or marks. Pot distilled and bottled unaged, this is a fascinating chance to delve into what goes into making the Hampden range.

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CUBAN Rum

Havana Club 15 Year Old

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Tasting Notes

Havana Club 15 Year Old is created through repeated blending of aged rums and aguardientes, then matured in old oak barrels, it reflects a style that prioritises elegance over brute force. Primer Maestro Ronero Don José Navarro describes it as Cuban rum’s great classic, and you can see why. It feels like it belongs in a low lit bar with ceiling fans turning slowly overhead.

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Jamaican Rum

Jamaican Distillery 23 Year Old 2000 (Bedford Park)

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Tasting Notes

Twenty-three years is a long time for a Jamaican rum to behave itself. Distilled in 2000 and aged for over two decades, this independent release from Bedford Park shows what extended maturation can do to traditionally high-ester spirit. The wild, tropical funk has not disappeared, but it has matured into something darker and more composed.

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MAURITIAN Rum

Mauritius Dodo Gold Rum Dodo Bottle

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Tasting Notes

Yes, the bottle is shaped like a dodo.

Mauritius Dodo Gold Rum combines giftable theatre with an approachable, easy-going profile. Made in Mauritius and bottled in its avian vessel, it balances soft sweetness, light oak, and tropical warmth. It works as a present. It works in a glass. Ideally, it works as both.

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BARBADOS Rum

Mount Gay Coffey Still Expression - The Master Blender Collection

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Tasting Notes

This is the seventh instalment in The Master Blender Collection from Mount Gay, and it pays tribute to its late distiller, Reynold Hinds, better known as Blues. Mount Gay owns one of the first types of column stills to be invented, a rare 100% copper Coffey Still that was recommissioned in 2019.

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Grenada Rum

Rivers Royale Grenadian Rum

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Tasting Notes

Produced at the River Antoine Estate in Grenada using traditional methods, this rum is famously powerful, fiercely aromatic, and rooted in cane juice character. It is bottled at high strength and wears it proudly. This is not a gateway rum. It is a rum for people who want to taste raw cane, earth, and fermentation in full voice. Authentic, intense, and entirely itself.

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GUATAMALAN Rum

Ron Zacapa XO Centenario Solera Gran Reserva Especial

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Tasting Notes

Ron Zacapa XO is produced using a solera system that blends rums aged between 6 and 25 years, then finished in French oak casks that previously held cognac. It is built for richness and silkiness above all else. The awards cabinet is already full, and for good reason. This is a plush, dessert-leaning rum with structure beneath the sweetness.

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Barbados Rum

Secret Distillery #7 22 Year Old - Batch 2 (That Boutique-y Rum Company)

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Tasting Notes

One for rum fans to puzzle over here – it's a pot still expression from an undisclosed distillery in Barbados! The gang at That Boutique-y Rum Company were sworn to secrecy when they picked up this parcel of rum, and it's a real treasure of an independent bottling. Perhaps there's a clue about its origin on the label?

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Guyana Rum

Diamond Distillery (Savalle Still) 19 Year Old (That Boutique-y Rum Company)

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Tasting Notes

The collection of stills housed at Guyana's Diamond distillery is the stuff of legend. When the country's rum production was consolidated to take place at Diamond, it inherited an array of stills from other producers, including the famed four-column metal French Savalle Still from the 18th-century Uitvlugt Estate. Bottled at a bold cask strength of 57.4% ABV, this is a top find from That Boutique-y Rum Company.

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PREMIUM RUM

Our choices for 2026

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