4 rums you must try in December

Here at the Rum Lab, we love to share the fun and glory of rum, and the holidays are a perfect time to highlight 4 Rums that are excellent to savor and would make incredible gifts. This is the time to pull out all the stops and look at some great rums for you to add to your collection, in a season for them to shine!

Winter is coming, but all the fun gift exchanges and the moments that matter most are caring and sharing our hearts and time with the ones we love. So this holiday season and this year-end / New Year call for a rum to sip, savor, enjoy and share. These four amazing rums are up to that task!

Diplomatico Ambassador Selection
Crafted by Rum Master Tito Cordero, Ambassador is made up of 100% pot-distilled rums that were aged at least 12 years in ex-bourbon casks before being blended and secondarily aged for another 2 years in PX sherry casks. When it has fully matured, it is blended and bottled without chill filtration to ensure that none of the aromas, palate intensity or flavor are removed during the filtration process. The aromas entice and lead with scents of fruit, toasted hazelnut, cocoa, toffee, apples, marzipan, baked plantains, oxidized nuts, cinnamon, caramel, tobacco and dried blossoms. The palate picks up, seamlessly, displaying the aromas as flavors and magnificently balancing the big juxtaposed nuances as intricate layers of elegant flavor that carry throughout the long finish.

Pussers 15 Year
Pussers is a blend of rums made in the style of Royal Navy Rum that has been aged 15 Years. The backbone of this blend are rums that are actually distilled in two ancient wooden stills in Guyana. The rum begins showing substantial aromas of roasted cocoa nibs, molasses, yogurt, mocha, clay, cola, baking spice, raisins, and wood; these scents drawn from the glass are filled with intriguing depth and resonate tempting you to sip. The mouth-feel is light and giving. To taste, the flavors initially, beautifully follow the aromas but then a surprising undertone of rhubarb, casaba melon and honeydew appear. The finish is as layered and complex, supple and clean with the fruit emerging as a lingering aftertaste. This is definitely a lovely and unique rum to relish in good company.

Appleton Estate 21 Year
Appleton Estate 21 is a blend of rums that is aged for a minimum of 21 years before being blended. This long aging in a tropical climate and careful blending produces a deep, full-bodied, ruminative rum. The aromas of brown sugar, baking spice, stewed dried tropical fruit, oxidized orange peel, vanilla, and cocoa articulate a lusciously ambrosial invitation to respectfully sip. The flavors begin as a maze of interwoven oak demonstrating balanced structure, roasted oily nuts, molasses and woodsy spice; these flavors lace wonderfully creating a perfect platform for rich, dark fruit flavors to build and play while maintaining that remarkable balance. The finish lingers with a vibrant review of the subtlety displayed on the palate with the layers of flavor slowly slipping away. Only a limited number of this complex, intricate and exquisite rum is released each year.

Plantation XO 20th Anniversary
This Plantation XO was a special offering was introduced to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Maison Ferrand; it immediately gained a huge following and has been added to the core line-up of Plantation Rums. This is a blend of fine rums that spends 8-10 years in Barbados aging, before being sent to Cognac to be further aged and then married into its final blend. After Tropical aging and Continental aging the rum a blend of rums from 12 to 20 years old. The aromas begin with flowers, cocoa, vanilla, marzipan and evolve in a myriad of evocative scents. When you taste the rum, the well-structured baking spice is the first thing you notice, then the slight sweetness lands at your mid-palate as robust flavors of caramel, molasses settle back to show stewed stone fruits with spice and then the light aromas appear again joined with the spices and fade in a delicate, chewy, full flavored finish.

If you would like to try some of this rum, make sure to visit the Midwest Rum Festival a.k.a Chicago Rum Fest on April 8th, 2017.