Wood's 100 Old Navy

Current bottling, 2017:
57% ABV (the original "100 proof"). Big nose of molasses, brown sugar, and vanilla. Very sharp. Drinkable neat, but very sweet. This would be great in eggnog. 6+, 7-

1960s bottling:
Semi-sweet chocolate chip nose. Some high notes but no ethanol. Smooth yet slightly prickly palate. Has an old/musty element. Very nice. 7, 7+ for rarity?

This has all the connections and nostalgia that rum should have. When you drink this you could imagine you are out at see, or half way around the world.

You could imaging drinking it in a warm home with friends or when it’s freezing on a rooftop bar in a European city.

It’s dark, but not overly sweet, it packs a real punch but does not destroy your taste buds.

For me this is the definition of rum.

Surprised our Navy is so respected if they got on this before battle. Bugger me, it's lethal. But very tasty. Tried it neat and I admit I'm not man enough to do that again. Slapped some ice and pepsi in it.

A staple diet for every British sailor was pussers and woods.
It's like mothers milk to us old uns

The perfect Rum for toasts

Randomly found a rum bar in Paris and they had two different bottles of Wood's 100 Old Navy Rum. One was a regular run of the mill Wood's and the other one was bottled in 1980, so I just had to try both back-to-back. The newer version bottle and label looks boring whereas the 1980 bottle and design look properly old school. Both colors are identical, almost blackish reddish deep brown. Both have a strong engine oil and who knows what to the nose. Taste test is massively different. Regular bottle barely earns 7, whereas the 1980 bottle is much more mellow. They both have a rather strong afterburn due to 114 Proof. The 1980 earns a solid 8.

Closing my eyes while tasting this Rum I found it strong on the nose with a chocolate like aroma . It reminds me of a long ago dock ale house of the 18th century this is not a rum for the faint of heart but I like its strength. It is truly a Navy Dark when neat with a burn that is both pain and pleasure like a good hot sauce

Rubbery and earthy on the first sniff. Follow by dark chocolate, toffee, flambe banana, jackfruit and sweet spices such as anise and clove.
Very complex on palate. woody, earthy with a touch of burned/ charred aroma flavor.
It tends to be slightly sour and salty (dried sour plum with sugar dust) and follow with sweet bitterness towards to end. It's then covered with flavor of clove and honey syrup.
Unripe banana which itch the gum on the finishing and sweet spices lingering .

Wood's is a true classic and it's easy to see why sailors were upset when the tot was stopped if this was what they were drinking. This rum is exceptional value for money and a classic, using a recipe from 1887 and distilled in the world's oldest and only wooden still. I always have a bottle of this on the shelf and it's always gone far too quickly, this is easily my favourite rum in terms of cost effectiveness.

Nose and taste are predominantly toffee, caramel, Christmas pudding and similar flavours - all very pungent and long lasting due to the higher ABV of 57% (which is always great with rum).

If you haven't tried this yet you should seek it out immediately - a fine example of navy rum and Guyanese rum, using Demerara.

This is a first class rum in my opinion with so much flavour

Nose: Toffee, cinnamon, cloves and pepper spice on the nose with thick caramel notes.

Palate: Muscovado sugar, soft toffee and just a hint of the spice detected on the nose. This is very smooth, belying its hefty abv.

Finish: Surprisingly short but thick and syrupy toffee notes abound.

Overall: A rich, dark rum with a high abv that retains its smoothness. Would work well in a dark and stormy, despite the fact Wood's is distilled in Guyana, and not Bermuda.