Brugal 1888 Ron Gran Reserva Familiar

Reviewing the bottle pictured - Doblemente Anejado (twice aged). In Spanish on the bottle it specifies Jerez (sherry) and bourbon casks.

I mostly enjoy single malts with expanding interest in Cognac/Armagnac, Bourbon/Rye, tequila, pisco, rum, any quality sipping spirit. I am not into cocktails and typically sip neat from a Glencairn glass. I add drops of water to spirits bottled above 40%.

This is my second rum. One other rum I tried was a Plantation Barbados 5-year old (cognac cask aged). I'd compare the quality to a GOOD VSOP or Napoleon Cognac. I think this Brugal is just slightly better, like an XO cognac. I am NOT saying they taste like grape brandy! They both taste like rum.

With Brugal 1888 Doblemente Anejado I enjoyed darker notes of chocolate and especially dried plum (chocolate covered prunes, a delicious confectionery). Made me think of Nutcracker and the Land of Sweets with all those confectionery characters :) I know what peat and smoke taste like and I didn't pick up ANY smoke in this, not on the nose and not on the palate. Not even a taste of toasted nuts.

I am not looking for a "smooth" spirit, I want interest. With this one adding several drops of water made it very smooth so with my second dram I stopped at one single drop of water, just to break up surface tension and introduce some oxygenation. Still smoother than quality whisky but enjoyable and interesting. I will probably try to find other styles of rum, like rhum agricole and whatever else is a dry savory rum. I enjoy sweeter malts right along with drier and peaty ones, but I find that rum and cognac are a tad sweet for me, so I may never become a regular rummy. I accidentally picked up my bottle for $23.99 US so I feel it was a great value and a useful etude in sugarcane spirit. I could see someone rating it at 5 stars. I just felt I wasn't qualified to do that having only tried 2 rums.

15th July 2018