Dictador Solera Distillery Icon Reserve 20-Year

Nice rum, tastes a lot like the 12 yo but more flavour and less burn. Can definately taste the coffee. Dictador is very distinct that way. Overall a nice sipper. It's above the 12 yo but quite a bit below the XO imo.

Smell: 10/8
Taste: 10/8

Nagyon finom,kellemes ital,de nekem a 12éves jobban ízlik.

Intense toffee flavor with a slight maple finish. Too bitter on the rocks. Too sweet with a splash. I like the 12 year better, not as sweet.

Great rum to sip, if you look for a more woodish, smokier flavor like a whiskey. It still has nice sweet notes like vanilla, but finishes a bit smokier than other rums. Much fuller profile than a Zacapa 23, but very round and super smooth.

Surprisingly, this one is less aromatic than the 12 YO.
Nose: very „barrique“, woody
Palate: a lot of wood, too. Slightly oily. No sharpness, not very aromatic besides the wood.

Too expensive compared to the 12YO.

Spicy, yet slightly thin. Indeed, need 50 characters.

This is the rum I enjoyed well with anybody I can drink it. My top of the top

V chuti aj vo voni cítim najviac vlašské orechy. Chuti sladko aj ked nie je dosladzovaný. Je ostrejší ako XO Insolent. Odporúčam ochutnať!

I rather like this rum. I do have a soft spot for sweeter rums, and this one seems to favour vanilla with some hints of toffee and caramel. I also caught a bit of oakiness but it didn't overwhelm the sweetness. One of my previous tasting notes compared the taste to a butter pecan tart, but I didn't seem to get that this time.

There has been a change in Dictator recently, their basic range rums, i.e., 12 and 20 yo started to be bottles in a version aged without Solera system. The 20yo is now called "distillery icon reserve". I liked very much the old, opaque bottle design so I'm lucky to have the non-Solera version but still in the classical design.

The aroma is warm, typical to Dictador rums: marzipan, coffee, cocoa powder, salted caramel, a dessert notes in general. Further sniffing brings secondary scents, nail polish remover and dried fruits: raisins and apples. The intensity of the aromas is quite strong, considering this rum is only 40%.

Despite its dessert flavor pattern, in the mouth the rum is dry. I like the interplay of chocolate and woody notes, accompanied with coffee and almonds. Copper and sour fruits are present in the background but the finish covers it all again with taste of coffee, dry wood and chocolate.

Dictator 20 is a fantastic basic range rum: not too complex but nice and coherent flavor profile, widely available, not sweetened (to my knowledge), and matured in ex-coffee barrels, which is unique. It would be interesting to try the high-abv version, if they issue it one day.