Don Q Gran Anejo

For over $50 a bottle I expected something better than what was in the bottle (a very nice bottle incidentally -- worth saving and reusing after scraping the lettering off -- BTW, make sure you have it on a sturdy flat surface because the artificial cork they use has a tight...and I mean TIGHT...fit). A rather dry Puerto Rican rum with very strong oak flavor...more akin to a bourbon than a rum IMHO. Not necessarily a bad thing if you also like bourbon...I do not. Some will probably like this as a sipping rum but for it's too harsh for sipping and needs to be mixed or added to Coke Zero. [NOTE: Just added 3oz to a 16.9oz bottle of Coke Zero -- definitely an improvement.]

It's a good rum, but that's the problem. A Grand Anejo should offer something a little more.

this rum is fine. it's just a little too much sweetness, a little too much harshness, a little short on spice and character, a little short on barrel. its tasty, but not great. if it were a $35 bottle... yessir. for $~60? there are a lot better choices.

I had great expectation from this fine presentation, but found ordinary rum in the bottle. Nothing bad nothing great.

Many years ago, a co-worker who was from Puerto Rico told me that Don Q had the best rums. Since he was a refined gentleman and I was looking for yet another reason to bid Bacardi farewell, I bought one of their basic rums from the grocery store. Horrible stuff! I swore off Don Q at that time, but should have bought their standard Anejo instead, which is supposedly just as good as their Gran Anejo.

Then I got to reading reviews on this one here at Rum Ratings and added it to my wish list. Lo and behold, I found one of two remaining dusty bottles on the bottom shelf for $51 each. This should have told me something about it not being worth the money. A very good liquor store can drop subtle hints like this, as well as put some really good cheap ones on the top shelf.

Discarding the silly box on the outside, I had one rough time opening the tightest cork that I had ever encountered. I thought that something was wrong with it. Wiggling it back and forth finally allowed me to open it. It is a plastic cork, but these things prevent spoilage better than real corks made for wine to breathe. This first sign was a good one.

The nose was almost nothing. The taste was like a fine bourbon with no added sweetness or artificial flavors. It was as smooth as can be, but also not memorable at all. An ice cube did nothing to open up the flavors. The pretty bottle could easily impress guests, but that is not my style. However, I will savor this most expensive bottle of rum that I own just like I did for that only bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 15 year old bourbon many years ago. That bourbon lasted me for a record six months figuring that I could never find another one again. How right I was! But I won't be looking for another bottle of this over priced rum.

Update: Eventually, half of this bottle was gone and I was sick of looking at it to remind me that it inspired my personal limit of $50 per bottle. I also had a half bottle of the much cheaper Don Q Anejo. Hmmm! You guessed it! I poured this half bottle into the half bottle of Don Q Anejo and that combination made for a wonderful sipping rum that I still have. Since I could not wait to get that empty pretty bottle of Don Q Gran Anejo out of my sight, I gave it to my neighbor. However, Don Q and Cruzan now rate as my two best brands of budget rums from the northeastern Caribbean to avoid sipping on the expensive ones in my collection.

I had very high expectations for this rum, given both its reputation and its price. A little bit of a burn in the finish, and not too sweet. It was not bad, but at the same time not all that interesting.

The presentation is what got me. It came in a beautiful cardboard box with the tick glass plug. I appreciated their cheaper mixing rum, especially the Cristal, one of the smoothest affordable white rums. This unfortunately did not deliver in the flavor department, it had a rough overtone to what I expected to be more complex and smooth rum.

If you’ve spent anytime in Puerto Rico you will soon learn that Don Q IS the rum that true Puerto Rican’s drink. Their gold / regular Anejo are much better the the famous Bicardi line which are also made in Puerto Rico.
With all that said I found the Gran Anejo not up to the price they want for it. For my money I’ll take the fine USA mainland rum Georgia’s own Richland rum much better.
Don Q is harsher and burns more on the backend.

Assez ruff, manque de complexité. Sur l'alcool. Trop cher

Bon rhum mais sans plus, rien d'extraordinaire, mais bon quand meme