English Harbour 1981 25-Year

Tried this rum at a tasting session last night. Great nose and palette.
This rum should enjoyed over long time.
Rum alone could be a 9, but the prize is just to large to be overlooked.

I'm not a huge fan of English Harbor rums, but the reviews on this one were very good, so I thought I'd give it a try. Bottle 220/5712.

Some reviewers said it is too sweet, others said it is too dry. I'd call it semi-sweet.

Smells and tastes of molasses, oak, vanilla, brown sugar, almond, cinnamon, caramel, honey, butter, and spice. Definitely a nice rum!

Don't get me wrong this is a good rum and depending on what you like I could see why some would give this a higher score but it just doesn't do it for me. It's a very smooth rum, but heavy on the oak and doesn't have the sweetness, complexity or spice that I like. I feel it's more in the league of the El Dorado 21 and is well overpriced for what you receive. At least it won't go bad. I'll come back to it one day but for now it's moved to the back of the cabinet.

J'ai eu l'opportunité de commandé cette bouteille à un tarif intéressant et j'ai donc sauté sur l'occasion connaissant la réputation légendaire de ce rhum. J'ai attendu la bonne occasion pour l'ouvrir et je dois l'admettre : j'ai été très déçu ! La première chose qui m'a choqué est son côté très gras, avec cette sensation huileuse sur la langue. Ensuite je l'ai trouvé très linéaire et n'ai pas découvert de grande complexité malgré l'âge. Bref à confirmer lors d'une seconde dégustation mais pour le moment c'est un grand regret.

The bottle is cool in a classic way. 1981 is the year I was born. If I hadn't been going through a restrained phase I probably would have just bought the bottle but decided to sample it first.

I'm glad I did as even with strong mental incentives to love this I just didn't.

The smell is very interesting and varied but just doesn't follow through into the taste which is just mainly harsh.

I tasted this back to back with the rum nation Panama 21 which just totally blew this away.

Overpriced. For the sweetened mix it is. If only they would have allowed it to show some greatness, now it is masked by a sweet layer that takes away flavours. Crap - for this price, really?!! Sherried, fruity - and unfortunately suffering from an overpowering sweetness.