Gosling's Family Reserve Old

Very basic name, but very nice flavor and smooth too. Worth the price.

Classy presentation in a dark, wax-dipped champagne bottle. I don’t normally comment too much on a rum’s colour, either, but happily make an exception here as this is truly a gorgeous dark, reddish mahogany hue, with copper edges. It looks “old” and elegant. Before nosing or tasting, I judged the colour of this rum to be amongst the very best I have seen.

The nose offers pronounced, deep aromas of oak, molasses, dark fruits (esp. raisin) and baking spices like nutmeg, clove and ginger. Just...wow! It is very captivating. I nosed the Glencairn for 10 minutes before taking the first sip. There is a deep and brooding quality to the nose that is simply incredible.

The palate is focused and structured, with flavours echoing the nose - wood, molasses and spice. There is just a slight hint of sweetness but this is definitely not a sweet rum. Fabulous! A slight black pepper note introduces the medium-length finish. To me, everything about this rum conjures up an ideal of what great rum should be. Simply sensational! Highly recommended.

This is the best rum I have ever tasted. It should be served over ice without any mixers. almost bourbon like in flavor.

Den är intressant men inte riktigt min smak, kan inte sätta fingret på vad det är.

Nice dark amber color
Nose: raisins, Seville orange, vanilla , dried dates
Taste: spicy, vanilla, raisins and Sevilla orange, warm feeling with some bitter aftertaste.
The rhum would rest longer in the glass to open up - but it was too late for me when I heard that (I only had 3 cl to taste it and I did it very quickly).

Beautiful packaging; very dark, nice color in the glass; slight fruit & spice on the nose; a nice, dry rum, thankfully no added sugar that I taste across my inexperienced palette; slightly sweet, vanilla & caramel across the tongue; warm vanilla across the backend; terrific bottle at a great price.

Very familiar aroma to folks who know their way around Black Seal. This is Gosling's premium rum and I was expecting a sort of upscale version of Black Seal, but was still disappointed to find that was kind of just what I got.

It starts of quite syrupy and sweet, almost as if someone had made a mixed drink with Dr. Pepper and let it sit long enough to go flat. The flavor quickly matures, though, and while it keeps that pepperiness, the straight sweetness mellows down into that characteristic molasses richness of Gosling's, giving way to vanilla, oak (really quite heavy on the bitter oak to cut through that sweetness), and maybe raisins or dates. Considering how sweet it opens up, the finish is very long, dry and woody. The texture of the drink is very smooth; another commenter described it as buttery, and that feels very accurate. It has a pleasant mouthfeel, though it finishes syrupy in the back of the palate.

Overall, it's nice, but there are many much nicer rums that are half this price. I don't regret revisiting Gosling's after all these years, and this would probably make an excellent mixer, but for the price, no one's going to want to get this just to make rum n' cokes. Get two bottles of something like R.L Seale's instead.

Opening a box and bottle is very impressive, but the rum inside does not fully live up to the 8 or 9 presentation. Smooth on the nose, very dark rich color first taste a lot of spice and a slight alcohol bite. A richer more complex variant than normal Goslings. I truly expected a little more.

Au nez, on sent le caramel, le chocolat et la cannelle.
En bouche, arômes de miel, de vanille et d'épices.
La finale est persistante.

Beautiful rum. Deep colour with levels of complexity. Keeps you coming back for more. Love the rustic bottle and packaging as well