While in the Dominican Republic I spotted a magazine article saying that Bermudez rums were in the process of being launched in the United States for the first time.  The Bermudez rums are pretty good.  The Bermudez Aniversario 1852 ended up being the bottle I took out of the country with me.  Yes, I even picked it over the Brugal Extra Viejo!

I have no idea if Bermudez will be made available throughout the whole of the United States.  The article only mentions North Carolina.  What do I know anyway?  Perhaps Bermudez has been available in the U.S. for years and a new distributor is simply creating some publicity for themselves?

However, just in case there is somebody in the United States who read about Bermudez rum on this blog, wants Bermudez rum,  and cannot find Bermudez rum, here are the contact details of the importer:

C&R Imports

(919) 272-4165

pereza@cnrimports.com

Maybe somebody can import this stuff to New Zealand?

Rum in the Dominican Republic is about more than just Brugal. Besides the omnipresent giant there are a host of other producers, including Barcelo, Bermudez, Don Rhon, Macorix and Siboney. You just have to look a little harder to find their products. In this tasting I focus on aged offerings from producers other than Brugal.

BARCELO PRODUCTS

Barcelo would be the closest rival to Brugal.  Barcelo Imperial competes with Brugal Extra Viejo at the premium end (though is priced a little higher), its cheaper products can be found in quite a few bars and restaurants.  You can also see the Barcelo name on hotels and resorts around the island.

Barcelo Anejo: Aged rum with a caramel, honey and citrus palette. It is light and sweet, with a little burn. This rum lacks the smoothness, complex aftertaste, and tobacco notes of the Imperial. More a mixer than a sipper.

Barcelo Imperial: Excellent aged rum from Barcelo.  Since around 2005 it has come impressively packaged in a clear bottle with an etched label – reminiscent of Woodford Reserve bourbon (left label in photo). The old packaging was more traditional (right label in photo).

A pungent, slightly smoky nose is followed by a bitter-sweet caramel on the tongue, with hints of tobacco and bitter oranges. The aftertaste is complex, short and bitter-sweet. This is a fairly simple rum.  Rather than presenting a huge range of flavors, it takes a few flavors and balances them carefully. I am not into cigars but this seems like a good cigar rum, robust enough to be complemented by tobacco rather than overwhelmed. A straightforward and satisfying sipper that you can reach for regularly. It contains few surprises but remains interesting. Dominicans must agree since this rum is a big competitor to Brugal Extra Viejo at the premium end of the market.

Incidentally, I did a comparison between the old and new incarnations of the Barcelo Imperial.  The older packaging is still in circulation in the Dominican Republic, particularly in tourist shops.  Bottles in the old packaging are often sold at a higher price than the new ones based on a claim that the rum is different.  Since Barcelo revised its product line up at the time of the repackaging it seems logical that the formula of the rum itself could have changed.  To check, I compared freshly opened bottles of each product, an old bottle from 2004 and a new bottle from 2008.  I found them identical, but preferred the 2008 bottle.  I felt the 2004 bottle had a slight ‘plastic’ taste.  The 2008 bottle also seemed a little richer and fuller.  Tamper proof plastic pouring device on the old bottle (discountined on the new one) may have impacted the taste (though the new bottles also use a plastic stopper), lying around in tropical heat for several years may have had an impact, or perhaps I was imagining things.  In any case, while the rum seems unchanged the new packaging is much more stylish.

BERMUDEZ PRODUCTS

Bermudez claims to be the Dominica Republic’s oldest rum producer.  The label only dates back to the mid 19th century, so I guess that makes the other producers even newer.  It also claims to produce the country’s smoothest rums.  They certainly are quite smooth.  Bermudez products are not often found in bars and restaurants, but are not too hard to find in supermarkets and small corner shops.

Don Armando (10 YO): You have to squint to see it, but Bermudez has a pretty cool label. The company trademark is a tiger’s face, but since the face is smaller than most of the label text it does not leap out at you. The understated label design hints at the subtlety of the rum itself. This honey colored rum is sharper and drier then the Brugal rums. The profile includes orange, honeycomb, vanilla, light coffee, and a slight lemony edge in the finish. The flavors remain distinct on the tongue (the waxy edge in the honeycomb breaks them up), but they cooperate rather than fighting. A pleasant light bodied sipper.

Bermudez Aniversario 1852 (12 YO): A significantly darker honey gold than the Don Armando, this rum pours with a somewhat viscous consistency. The nose is softer than the Don Armando, but shares the same honeycomb and orange profile. However, this rum is smoother and richer than the Don Armando, losing the sharpness of the younger rum while retaining some of its dryness. The honeycomb characteristic persists, but in a smoother and less waxy form. The orange notes tend towards bitter orange. The lemony finish is gone, but the coffee and vanilla remain. There are soft blossomy notes I did not get in the younger rum.  The overall impression is of exotic bush honey. An interesting rum that I will be seeking out in future.

DON RHON PRODUCTS

Don Rhon Gran Reserva VSGR: This rum comes in a cute little bottle shaped like a wooden cask. On tasting I was struck by its odd nose, which included a distinct ‘vermouthy’ note. The nose was not exactly vermouth per se, instead being some specific botanical I associate with vermouth. The body was thin and hinting at rough. There was a strong chocolate note, but little sweetness. Normally I would like ‘bitter chocolate’, but something about this rum seemed artificial and not very pleasant. Dilution with soda-water brought out a fragrant pisco-like note that was almost appealing. Overall I found this rum unpleasant. Some people may like it though. It is priced like a quality rum so presumably something in there appeals to someone.

MACRONIX PRODUCTS

Vieja Reserva 8 Anos: Smooth, with fairly light and subtle flavors. Drier than the Brugal rums. Caramel, citrus, honey, faint dried herbs (mint?).  Smells almost like a glass of Coke (kola nut aroma?), but the taste is all rum.  Smooth enough to be a pleasant sipper. Given the herbal notes perhaps this could also be an interesting Mojito rum?

SIBONEY PRODUCTS

These rums are a recent arrival on the Dominican rum scene.  Although not particularly hard to track down aficionados like to introduce them as the Dominican Republic’s ‘secret rum’.  There is a story that the label was originally Cuban, disappeared amidst the political upheavals there, and has recently been revived.

Dorado Superior: Basic gold rum. Thinner and rougher than the Brugal products. I only tried it once, over dinner, and it failed to grab me. Perhaps I was intimidated by having accidentally ordering an entire bottle?

Reserva Especial: Smooth, sweet and light. Golden honey with pale caramel. The addition of fruit juices brings out a slightly interesting coffee note. A smooth and pleasant rum, but for my money too pedestrian and boring to bother with. As a straight sipper it does not approach the similarly priced Brugal Extra Viejo.

The complex sees a small but steady trickle of visitors, mostly foreign tourists.  Since it is on the tourist trail there are no dramas about getting in.  The guards at the gate simply wave you in and point you towards a sign saying ‘visitors’.

Walking into the complex there is what appears to be a blending facility on your right.  The aging is done off-site at another location in Puerto Plata.  However, you may see trucks delivering barrels of rum to this blending area.  I believe the stills were also in this part of the complex, though I was so busy looking at rum barrels I forgot to look out for them.  Unfortunately you do not get to see what goes on inside this area on the standard tour.

The visitors center is basically a small bar and gift shop set beside the bottling plant.  To get there you will also walk past the attached warehouse and loading zone where they fill delivery trucks for the local market and build pallets for loading into shipping containers for export.

Outside the visitors center is a map of the world, with little barrels showing the countries to which Brugal rum is exported.  Given that Brugal has recently having been acquired by the U.K.’s Edrington Group (producers of Cutty Sark), the number of barrels on the map should soon be growing.

The garden contains a small display of antique sugar processing equipment.

The wooden mill is for extracting the sugar cane juice, and I believe the metal pot is for processing the juice into rock sugar and molasses.  When I asked him, the guide explained the object as a pot for ‘producing molasses’.  However, so far as I know the molasses would simply be a byproduct of sugar production, forming in the bottom of the pot as the sugar cane syrup reduces and finally solidifies.

Once a half dozen or so tourists have gathered a guide leads you through to a video room to watch a short video on rum production and Brugal.  The video is only a couple of minutes long and is unlikely to tell you anything you do not already know.  The gist of it is that rum is produced from molasses, the essence of sugar cane.  Strangely they do not call molasses a waste product of sugar production.  The video then goes on to claim that Brugal uses traditional but top-secret techniques to produce the purest rum in the world.  The focus on purity reminded me of vodka marketing.  The climax is a distinguished elderly gentleman nosing Brugal rum from a Martini glass.  So the video is cool to see and all but there is not much substance to it.

The next stop in the tour is the bottling room.

This room is said to be able to produce 30-40 thousand bottles a day.  They certainly looked busy.

After the bottling room the tour headed back outside to the bar and gift shop area.  Everybody was offered a slushy made from the Brugal white rum, lime juice and a little mint.  Concerned parents intervened to spoil their children’s fun.  The mint was not overdone and the drink was quite tasty.

The guide then took a few moments to introduce the products as samples were offered.  According to him, the overproof (151) is their only unaged rum, the Blanco is aged for two years (and presumably filtered to remove the color – though I forgot to confirm this), the Anejo for 4 years, and the Extra Viejo for 6 years.  He skipped the Carta Dorado.  I got distracted by other questions and forgot to call him up on this, but the fact that he skipped a product makes me wonder if his information on the Blanco was not wrong.  The Carta Dorado is presumably aged longer than the Blanco but less than the Anejo.  That would put the Carta Dorado at three years if he was right on the Blanco, or less if he was wrong.

While the other members of the group stormed the bar I asked the guide a few more questions.   I wanted to ask about Siglo de Oro, and was also wondering why he had not mentioned the Carta Blanca (the straw colored rum I reviewed earlier and did not especially care for).  Unfortunately, getting answers to my questions on these two matters led to me forgetting to ask why he had skipped the Carta Dorado, and whether the Blanco was really aged for two years and then had the color filtered out.

The guide seemed quite sure of himself when answering questions about Siglo de Oro.  He said it was aged for 9 years, annual production was around 30 thousand bottles, and it was released in a staggered fashion during January, February and March.  It should be available in the gift shop during those months for a little north of $40.  I suspect the 30 thousand bottles figure is more accurate than the two thousand I mentioned earlier.  If only two thousand were produced each year then how come I picked one up without too much difficulty?

Unfortunately, the guide got very confused when I asked him about the Carta Blanca.  I could not see it for sale in the gift shop and wondered what the story was.  First he said I must have simply seen the blanco with a different label.  I knew this was not the case though.  Luckily I happened to spot a bottle sitting in a display case.  I pointed this bottle out to him so he would be clear exactly what I was talking about. It turned out that several Brugal products have been discontinued, and the case I was pointing at was the ‘discontinued products display’.  Besides the Carta Blanca, this poignant little display contained two flavored rums (limon and passion fruit).  I had been keeping an eye out for the passion fruit rum, but I guess I am not going to be tasting it after all.  I have spotted the limon in one or two locations, so a little old stock is still out there.

The guide then filled me in with some interesting information about the history of the local rum market.  He said that Brugal used to have more local competition, primarily from Barcelo and Bermudez.  A family feud killed Bermudez as Brugal’s main competitor, while Barcelo became distracted by forays into the hotel industry.  The lack of competition has allowed Brugal to dominate the local market since the early 1990s.

According to the guide you can get a more comprehensive tour of the facility by e-mailing in advance.  I did e-mail but received no reply to my e-mail.  The more comprehensive tour should include the distilling, blending and aging areas.  He also mentioned something about a special blending facility for products destined for Italy, which may indicate that the Italian market gets a slightly different product range?

As I was leaving I asked the guide about some Macorix products I spotted waiting to be loaded into trucks.  Supposedly Macorix is now produced under license by Brugal.

The weather settled a little in the afternoon, and I took advantage of the break in the rain to hop in a shared taxi to Caberete, a smaller settlement several kilometers down the road.  I had heard a rumor that beside the Caberete petrol station was a shop stocking Siglo de Oro and selling it at non-extortionate prices.

Incidentally countryside taxis here are a little like Cambodia.  You get the option of traveling very cheaply by paying for a single seat in a cab traveling in your direction.  The seat besides the driver is calculated as two seats though, so you pay double to sit there if you do not want somebody else sitting practically in your lap.  In fact, in the Dominican Republic there are even taxis working city streets that operate on this system.  It’s not such a bad idea really, though in urban areas I guess it works best where the city has a grid-like layout.

Siglo de Oro is the top product from Brugal, and something of a cult rum.  Only two thousand 30 thousand bottles are produced each year.  The rum is released around December, and by the time August arrives it has long ago become difficult to find.  I had seen it in a few of the tourist shops in Santo Domingo, but they were selling it at prices that began at around twice the usual retail price and increased from there depending on the whim of the shopkeeper.  Would I manage to pick a bottle up for a more reasonable sum?

Given my bad Spanish I was not sure if the taxi driver would drop me off at the right spot.  Everything went smoothly though.  He pulled up outside a petrol station.  Reassuringly the station had a mini-market as promised.  Even the name of the mini-market was right – Mercado la Rosa or something.  I went in, and sure enough there were two bottles of Siglo de Oro stashed on the top shelf.  Better still, they were priced at only 1,430 pesos.  I bought a bottle and headed back thorough the deteriorating weather to Sosua.

Back in my room I opened up the box the rum came in, flicking on the television as I did so, only to find scenes of the most incredible carnage.  The Dominican Republic had just had the worst traffic accident in its history.  Somewhere else on the island two buses had collided head on, leaving over twenty people dead.  To call the TV footage graphic would be an understatement.  Lingering closeups of severed heads were the order of the day.

I was no longer in the mood for trying a new rum, so I set the rum aside and went out for some dinner.  I dropped by a little hole in the wall place run by a  German guy that served impressive sausages, schnitzels and so on.  Unfortunately nobody here seems to be able to do chips well.  They are oily everywhere you go.

Not until today did I finally open the rum.  I guess that makes my bottle of Siglo de Oro a birthday present to myself.  Nice!  Now if only I could persuade other people to treat me this well.

Siglo de Oro is impressively packaged in a blue box.  The rum itself is contained in an attractive blue pottery bottle with a cork stopper.  Some of the purchase price for this rum clearly goes on the flash packaging.  Would the rum itself live up to the hype?

I removed the stopper and poured a little into a glass.  It poured with a deep gold color and a rich, almost syrupy, consistency.

On sniffing my first impression was that it was awfully like the Brugal Extra Viejo.  I even wondered for a moment if I had not been sold some kind of fake.  I am finding this is the case with rums though.  The differences between different products from the same company can be fairly subtle – to me anyway.

Without analyzing the nose much beyond thinking “smells like Brugal”, I dove in for a taste.  Differences between the Siglo de Oro and the Extra Viejo immediately became apparent. Incidentally, a little later I put the two rums side by side and their differences became even clearer.  The Siglo de Oro is just far smoother than the Extra Viejo, and has less alcohol burn and tannin bitterness.  The Extra Viejo, a very smooth rum, tates rough in comparison.  Still, while the palates lean in different directions (as described below), the overall character of both products is similar.  I would characterize Siglo de Oro as a refined version of the Extra Viejo rather than a totally different rum.

The Siglo de Oro leans towards a gentle honeyed character, versus more of a caramel profile in the Extra Viejo.   While sweet, the palette is complex.  The honey evolves into a hint of waxy honeycomb on the tongue, and there is a little bitterness in the finish. The wood and tanin tastes you would expect in a fine old rum are present, but lingering behind a wall of sweet and pleasant flavors.  Sipping on this rum you enjoy a complex medley of dried fruit like figs, bananas and apricots. The spicy notes in the Extra Viejo are moderated to mere subtle hints in the Siglo de Oro.  While the flavors in this rum tend towards the sweet of the spectrum, their highly concentrated form and the exceptional balance prevent the impression of sweetness.  The finish is dry enough to prepare you for another sip.  At the same time though, the taste lingers in your mouth and you feel you can afford to wait before actually taking that next sip.

Siglo de Oro is a subtle rum, perhaps a bit too subtle for me, but still dangerously good stuff.  Given that they export a little, it is worth keeping an eye out for.

Incidentally, and perhaps this sounds wrong, it tastes very good with just a little coconut water.  Same for the Extra Viejo.

That first bottle left an impression, but I never got to try Brugal again until I arrived in the Dominican Republic. Here I have been confronted by walls of Brugal rum virtually everywhere I go. Every little shop carries it. The stuff is so ubiquitous that supermarkets often give it virtually its own section, separate from the rest of the booze. Typically supermarkets have a booze section, containing wines, whiskeys, liqueurs and so forth. Then, sometimes in a completely different part of the store, they have a rum section. Brugal invariably dominates the rum section.

Clearly it is time for a Brugal rum tasting. The fact that rum here is sold in handy little half bottles makes a tasting easy to organize. I am going to taste six of the basic Brugal products. Their flavored rums* are not reviewed here (I noticed a limon and they may do others), and nor is Siglo de Oro, their top of the line product.  Siglo de Oro has proved hard to track down for a non-extortionate price so I guess I will review it later. One final exclusion is Brugal Unico, a liqueur based on fine aged rums and other flavorings. Tasting notes below:

Overproof (151):  A fierce alcoholic nose – surprise, surprise.  It goes down with a fair burn, but the burn gets offset somewhat by sweetness and whiffs of soft chocolate.  Fairly smooth for an unaged overproof rum.  This is allegedly the only unaged rum in the Brugal range.  I can’t drink this straight but as I type it does not seem bad for a supercharged rum and coke.  Will I regret it?

Blanco: Smooth and fragrant white rum (supposedly aged for two years?). A mellow profile with strong cocoa butter and light coffee notes. The chocolate notes are fairly pronounced and come through even when mixed with coke and lime in a Cuba Libre. A quality white rum.

Carta Blanca: A light straw color from slight aging. Sharper than Brugal’s longer aged offerings, yet with little of the soft cocoa notes that distinguish the blanco. I am not sure this rum makes for a good compromise between the Blanco and the Carta Dorada. It has an interesting nuttiness though. It seems like they recycle bottles here and the top of my bottle has a worn chip on it. Maybe a poor seal meant this bottle got oxidized?  [NOTE: After visiting the Brugal distillery in Puerto Plata I was told that this product has been discontinued.]

Carta Dorada: Sweetish gold rum. Initially grassy and gently herbal, evolving into light honey and fruit flavors. Doesn’t finish as smoothly as the Anejo, and lacks the same balance and depth of flavor. Seems like it would make a nice mixer with juices.

Anejo: Smooth and full bodied. Caramelized bananas, a hint of apricots, woody notes, and a little spice. Subtle and restrained, finishing with a lingering fruity aftertaste. This rum has the makings of a decent sipper.  However, if you have access to the Extra Viejo it makes more sense to sip that since the price differential is minimal.  Probably best used as a mixer in cocktails that accent the rum. Once again the fruity notes could make it a good mixer with juices.

Extra Viejo: Extremely rich and smooth. Caramel, wood, spices, and suggestions of dried or fermented fruit (maybe prunes) all share the stage. Reminds me of a cognac, being subtle with quite a bit going on.  A lingering aftertaste with very gentle bitterness. Full flavored and nicely balanced. A very approachable rum. Given its smoothness I think I prefer it without ice.

* While a few bottles are still in circulation, Brugal has discontinued its two flavored rums – limon and passion fruit.

I am now in the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo to be precise.  Santo Domingo is a rough-around-the-edges sort of a place.  The initial impression was lousy.  Who appreciates arriving near midnight after delayed flights with no hotel booked, getting dumped by a taxi driver in a run-down area of town with no street lighting, discovering nobody speaks English and your Spanish teachers were a pack of lousy scam artists, and finally ending up in a roach-infested doss house called ‘El Refugio de Pirata’?  No, really.  That’s what it was called.  I couldn’t make this stuff up.

 

 

A change of hotels and a couple of days time has seen the place grow on me a little.  What’s not to like about a city where rum is thoughtfully sold in bottles ranging from dainty (in rum terms) 350ml affairs up to 1.5 liter monsters fit for a pirate king?  Comparatively speaking rum is also rather cheap.  In the supermarket 200 pesos (about US$6) gets you either a six pack of average beer or a 750ml bottle of quality rum.  The little rum bottles mean you can cheaply sample a wide range of rums.  I went and bought all four of the regular Brugal rums: the Blanco, Canta Dorada, Anejo, and Extra Viejo.  I will post a tasting soon.  Most locals seem to drink beer though.  Go figure.

 

My first true Caribbean rum experience was enjoyed with lunch (a Cuban sandwich – a ‘Cuban’ seems to be a lightly toasted baguette with cheese, pork and ham) in a little corner bar on the east end of the pedestrian street that runs through the old town.  I had a Brugal Extra Viejo in a brandy snifter, with an iced coke on the side.  The midday heat compelled me to dump the rum in the coke after a few sips.  That sort of behavior seems criminal, but the stuff is ubiquitous here so who cares?

 

Tonight I checked out the Brugal Rum Festival de Merengue.  I first sensed this festival was happening while walking along the pedestrian drag this morning.  I saw several statuesque black models strolling along dressed in Brugal Rum outfits.  Something was up.  A little later I was in a café having brunch and couldn’t help noticing that the newspaper being read by the guy sitting beside me contained a big advertisement for a four day Brugal Rum festival.  This guy was rather interesting.  He carried himself with a supremely leisurely air and was literally dripping with gold.  Besides his gold-ornamented spectacles and the numerous gold rings adorning his fingers, he was the only customer in the shop drinking out of a gold rimmed espresso cup.  God knows what was going on there, but I suspect he accessorized by stashing a personal cup behind the counter.  Anyway, all credit to him.

 

After breakfast I took a walk around town and did some tourist stuff.  I checked out the cathedral of Santo Domingo (the oldest cathedral in the New World), Christopher Columbus’s palace, and the palace of the subsequent colonial governors.  All of these places were interesting.  The incredible thing was just how old they were.  I think the cathedral dated back to 1511 – nearly 500 years in other words.  Christopher Columbus’s palace was even older.  Half a millennia is old anywhere, but somehow feels even older in the New World.

 

While checking out Christopher Columbus’s palace I noticed a stage being setting up for the Brugal Rum Festival.  The Brugal Rum Festival was happening right below where Columbus used to live.  Since Columbus died before rum got started I doubt he would have approved.  Perhaps a sherry or Madera festival would have been more appropriate?  I wandered down to ask the workers what the story was and they told me to come back at eight in the evening.

I did so.

 

I got to the festival just before 10 pm to find things in full swing.  In fact, things were swinging so fully that many of the locals were content to just hang off the edges of the event.  Christopher Columbus’s palace was a popular vantage point for those who only wished to look down on proceedings from a distance.  There was a stage, a crowd of enthusiastic dancers, and a dozen or so drink tents.  I worked my way down the hill, wormed through the dancers, and headed for the drink tents.  Most of the tents had no drink menus on display and it was not at all clear what you were supposed to order.  Rows of small Brugal bottles glowered at me menacingly.  Surely you didn’t order rum by the bottle?  Many people were doing just that though.  I found a tent offering mixed drinks.  I think the drink I ordered was called a ‘Mantilla’ or similar.  From what I could see it contained Brugal white rum, fruit punch, grenadine, more rum, and a dash of anise liqueur.  It was overly sweet but quite good.  The guy who mixed it warned me it would be good, saying something to the effect that everything he mixed was exceptionally fine.  I couldn’t disagree.  I passed near his tent again a little later and he screamed at me to come over, whereupon the pair of us confirmed for a second time that his drink was bueno.  He was enthusiastic about his job.

 

I left the festival and walked back up the hill and past Columbus’s palace to the plaza.  There was a Spanish restaurant with a flamenco show happening so I took a table there.  It seemed a good time to give Ron Barcelo Imperial a try.  Ron Barcelo Imperial is very good rum.  The rum tastes like the best parts of a perfectly prepared Spanish flan (i.e. a crème caramel).  It has the perfect mix of caramel and sweetness.  Normally I wouldn’t consider caramel an exciting taste in rum.  Ron Barcelo is an exception, filling the mouth with a caramel that is beautifully complex, sweet and rounded, with hints of tobacco smoke.  I sipped the rum, watched the dancers, fished the ice cubes out of the rum before it became too diluted, and sipped the rum some more.  The Dominican flamenco dancers, the rum, and the plaza beside the palace of Christopher Columbus combined to create something  far from home yet familiar.