RUM is becoming ever more popular on the gantries of bars with spiced bottles like Sailor Jerry and the Kraken leading the charge. These approachable styles tend to have top notes of vanilla and cinnamon or caramel, and they work very well with coke over ice.
However, these are not the rums that find their way into my drinks cabinet. At the moment, in my rum corner, I have an Angostura Reserva white rum, a Diplomatico Single Vintage 2001, a Doorly’s 12-year-old and a bottle of Kill Devil Single Cask. So my stocks are quite low.
The Angostura (available online from Master of Malt, £19.87) hails from Trinidad and Tobago and is a great mixing rum that doesn’t overly hurt the wallet. I like it in a big tumbler with ice and Old Jamaica Ginger Beer. Other good white rums worth finding include Plantation Three Stars, Trois Rivieres Blanc, and Toz from St Lucia. Wray and Nephew Overproof is also delicious, but watch out for the extra oomph from the extra alcohol, it really is "overproof".
The Diplomatico rums come from Venezuela and are arguably my favourite brand outside of Barbados. They start around the £30 mark and go up to about £200. The 2001 Single Vintage (Inverarity One to One, £72.99) is expensive, but it is absolutely sublime. This is a rum for sipping straight with friends after a big, rich meal. The perfect digestif.
And now, to the spiritual home of rum, Barbados. This island produces Doorly’s, Mount Gilboa, Mount Gay and St Nicholas Abbey Rum, all of which deserve a place in your cabinet. Bajan rums are amongst the most approachable and downright drinkable styles on the market. If you’ve never had a proper rum before, this is where you should start your journey.
Doorly’s 12-year-old Rum (Inverarity One to One, £34.99). This is aged in bourbon casks before being finished in a combination of port and madeira casks, making for a very complex spirit in your glass. The Doorly’s bottles all have a parrot on the label, with the older rums featuring rarer parrots. The parrot on the 12-year-old label is the Spix’s Macaw, which is all but extinct in the wild.
The Kill Devil Single Cask Rum (available online from the Whisky Exchange, £46.95) is from the same distillery (Four Square) as Doorly’s. As the nine-year-old spirit has come from a single cask, it is extremely rare, with the total run comprising just 356 bottles. Grab one soon before they all disappear.
Pete Stewart is Glasgow director of Inverarity One to One, 185a Bath Street, Glasgow (0141 221 5121) www.inverarity121.com
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