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Mount Gay Extra Old (often written "OX") is a blend of rums aged between 8 and 15 years in American bourbon barrels.
Mount Gay Distilleries is the oldest operating distillery in the Americas - producing rum in Barbados since 1703. It's original name was Mount Gilboa, and in 1801 renamed Mount Gay after the distillery's manager Sir John Gay Alleyne.
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Posted
8 years ago
Stop! You're killing me...HA HAH ah (hack!) HAH!
That was for those rating this under a 7. This is a real rum. I suspect a tiny morsel of added sugars due to the "smoothness" - a dead give away for tossing sugar cubes into the batch for any rum less than 15 years old - but this an authentic rum, non-Western diabetic marketing concoction bordering on cough syrup.
Tasting notes are not needed. It's a better rum than Abuelo Centuria. MGXO has an almost perfect balance between of dry & sweet, wood and salivation, aged too long and not long enough. If you don't like this, head for the Zaya aisle. If you do, come on over and have a glass you discriminating, sophisticated, demanding drinker, you.
Rum crafting excellence.
Posted
8 years ago
Wow, this is just a perfect rum. It's impossibly smooth, naturally sweet, full of molasses and toffee, some oak, and a whole lot of perfection. Compare this miraculous rum with Plantation XO (also from Barbados), which has more added sugar than children's juice boxes. You can spend much more for rums which are as good as - but not better - than this one. Straight up, right?
Posted
over 8 years ago
Mount Gay is a quality product to the world of rum. Mount Gay serves a great bridge point to all drinkers. It is not sweet enough to scare away those who prefer earthy/dry spirits (scotch drinkers). It also is not dry/earthy enough to scare away a sweeter preferring drinker. It is the best balance of sweet and dry rum I might ever have. It's characters of the bourbon barrel are very distinguished and give this rum 90% of its characters. The issue with mount gay is the ingredients do not stand out as much as they should. The rum straight is pretty simple in this regard with a little harshness in the back. This is best served with a light amount of cola or ice to get rid of the slight harshness. Mount gay is a great addition to the collection if it is a decision between this or zacapa 23 (2 commonly available top shelves) take this. A perfect analogy of this rum is the good but not best looking girl in the class who happens to be relatively smart and sweet. Is she the knockout with the bold fiesty personality. No, she just prefers to let her quality characteristics sell herself. If mount gay ever got brave and added more boldness to the rum (larger amounts of ingredients per batch ) we could be looking at a perfect rum.
Just tried Mount Gay XO for the first time. As someone who has never tried rum that costs more than $30 per bottle, you'd rightly expect I am incredibly impressed. Mount Gay XO has a lovely cinnamony woody aroma, and a nice full flavor in my mouth place. The swallowing action was pleasing to the throat, with a nice warmth. Nothing like that horrible tasteless burn from cheaper rums. I trust I will gain an even higher appreciation for this rum after sampling more rums of similar quality. For now, it's a solid 10 until I try something better. I enjoyed this drink neat with some chocolates
Posted
almost 10 years ago
Almost perfect on most levels, great neat or with single ice cube
Posted
over 8 years ago
molasses. dry.
i smell some dark fruits. pepper, ginger, barbados!
i taste fruit and tons of spice. pepper. ginger. some hints of vanilla and chocolate.
10/10 - drop 5 from this score if you love sweet rum.
full bodied powerhouse for a very really fair price. if one god exists and would ask me: take three rums with you to heaven, i think, one of them would be this!
Posted
9 years ago
Rum. Beautiful example of pot still Bajan rum
A lesson to most in rum making
Posted
over 6 years ago
I recommend this rum to all my whiskey/bourbon drinking friends. It's got enough oak and lingering burn to keep them happy, and I enjoy the surprised look on their faces as they realize how satisfying a good rum can be. Sweeter than a wheated bourbon, but not at the sacrifice of complexity. At $40 in my local ABC, it's a no-brainer.
Posted
almost 7 years ago
Amazing rum with so much flavoure. How is the average only 7.7? Crazy. Its smooth, intese, easy sipping, sweet, and affordable. I lile this one alot
Posted
over 8 years ago
A very heavy and balanced mild rum. One of my favorites!
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Flashes of brilliance coupled with moments of frustration
6
/10
out of 10
This rum has some wonderful attributes that could bump it all the way to a 8. Unfortunately it also has some serious flaws.
So let's get into the nitty gritty. I got this bottle for $44US which is roughly the same as other premium rums but twice as much as RL Seale's Doorly's line of rums. Given the high reviews here I was expecting great things from this rum, but alas it comes up just short of greatness.
The nose is Bananas, Vanilla, Caramel, Fine Tobacco, and notes of Leather. An interesting and fairly pleasant mix. When you take a sip you immediately notice the Oak which then transitions into a mix of Caramel, light Banana notes, Fine Tobacco, and Black Pepper. The combination is an interesting and pleasant mix which many will love. I like it a good deal, but I don't quite love it. The finish is Caramel with notes of Bananas that come and go (one sip the Banana finish is instantly noticeable, the next sip it only shows up as a light whiff). However, here is where the negative shows up. There is a lingering sour that remains on the back of my tongue and the roof of my mouth long after I put the glass down that can only be described as a leather sour. This kind of kills the nice memories the nose and palate build upon. The ultimate result is that this rum constantly morphs anywhere between a 9 (nose) and a 6 (aftertaste) with a mean experience I would quantify around 7.3 - i.e. solid but not spectacular; or more precisely wonderful but simultaneously flawed. You could analogize it to a football (soccer) team that is clearly talented, but doesn't have team chemistry yet - you see flashes of brilliance coupled with frustration.
I have no doubt that as I come back to this bottle, my rating will change...however, in which direction I just can't tell yet. I will say that Doorly's 12 year is a spectacular Bajan rum, with none of the drawbacks of MGXO, available for literally half the price of this rum so the fact that this rum is twice the price and still suffers the flaws it does drops this from an 8 to a 7 in the final tally.
*Update July 2020* Having let it sit for 10 minutes and then trying it in my snifter, the extra aeration does help marginally and adds a slight buttery flavor on the back end of the palate. That said the sour still lingers and still depreciates the experience. If they could eliminate the pucker sour on the back end, this rum would be a full 9. Alas, it remains and drags this rum down a bit...and that's a shame because the rest of the experience is quite pleasant. At $44US this rum is a bit too expensive to have a flaw of that magnitude stand out in an otherwise great experience. Doorly's 12 year has a similar but far superior profile, without the flaws, and can be brought here in the US for literally half the price.
*Update August 2020* A fellow rum aficionado suggested drinking this on the rocks over coconut water ice cubes. I took his advice and it absolutely floored me. It is the nectar of the Gods. MGXO+Coconut Water Ice cubes is insanely good because the coconut water nullifies the sour while adding another dimension to this rum. Drinking this rum neat is a just ok. Drinking it over coconut water ices cubes raises to magnificent.Granted it that is juicing, but it instantly turns this rum into a star player.
Nose: 8
Palate: 7
Aftertaste: 5
Smoothness: 6
Versatility: 9
Price: 6
Total: 6.8