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Barbancourt 5 Star Reserve Especiale 8-Year Rum is agricultural, meaning it's produced from fermented sugar cane juice rather than the more typical molasses. The sugar cane juice is double distilled and aged for eight years in Limousin oak barrels.
Dupré Barbancourt created the Barbancourt rum recipe in 1862 in Haiti, where the rum is still produced today. A French national, Barbancourt incorporated traditional French methods including double-distillation in the process.
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Posted
over 1 year ago
Good Aroma. Very warm flavors of wood barrel, spices brown sugar, and a nice vegetal note at the end. A great choice.
Posted
over 1 year ago
I have only tried agricole rum a couple times and was not impressed at all. I gave it one more shot with Barbancourt and I am done with agricole. This rum has a bit of a smokey aroma and nothing else. More gold than amber color and a flat alcohol taste mixed with smoke and a bit of sweetness, and just not mixed in a good way. Gave a 4 and not a 3 because did use also as mixer and was not bad at all but I really prefer rum neat or on the rocks.
Posted
over 1 year ago
Tasted at Laka Lono on 5/11/21. Rich amber in color. Boozy aroma of acetone and pineapples. Woody and bitter. Herbal woodruff. A dessicating finish to the mouthfeel. Very unique and pleasant.
Posted
over 1 year ago
This is my first French style rum. It's ok. Mostly just spicey.
Posted
over 1 year ago
Molasses notes and smooth finish very aseptic on the tongue
Posted
over 1 year ago
Buttery cinnamon vanilla
Suggest lemon and lime wedge served neat
Posted
almost 2 years ago
I picked this one up when I was finding it difficult to find a true rhum agricole. I don't enjoy it neat, but I really enjoy it with a Mexican coke and another rum.
Posted
almost 2 years ago
Light amber, faint nose, but nicely balanced and very easy to sip. A very good value.
Posted
almost 2 years ago
A good Agricole Rhum (not my cup of tea) but goes well on the Cuba Libre… a bit spicy and harsh typical from these types of rums.
Great rum!! Really good for the price, dry rum!!!!!
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Way back in the late eighties during leaner times when travel was preferred over fine rums (which were not even available back then), this was my occasional "luxury" rum. My usual ones in those days were Cruzan Gold, Appleton V/X, and Pusser's Navy Strength. In those days, El Dorado, Diplomatico, Pampero, and the like could not even be found on shelves in my area. The complete Barbancourt line of rhums could easily be found in French speaking Louisiana. They were not cheap, so this here 8 Year Old was always my "luxury rum". I had absolutely no idea back then why the difference in taste was due to it being an agricole rhum aged in Limousin oak casks. I just knew that it was totally different from all of the other rums that I had tried at the time.
So why have I waited so long to try this one again? The reviews that mention smoke and "after the quake" decline in quality threw me off. Recently trying their 15 Year old neat at a bar also did not help. So after carefully studying all of these reviews again, I figured that there was less than a 25% chance that I would wind up with a bottle from a bad batch. I took the $27 gamble on this bottle and brought it home along with two pricey aged rhum agricoles from Martinique. This one easily beat those other two and I really lucked out on my new bottle of Barbancourt.
Just as I remembered it, it is very buttery and delicate with no smoke flavor whatsoever. The burn is kept to a minimal. The aroma is more floral than grassy, as well as the taste. Had I rated this one back then, it would qualify as a perfect 10, but these days I have found many more rums that are better, even if they cost much more.