St. Nicholas Abbey Rare Single Cask Ltd Reserve 15-Year

This rum is beautiful. The nose is richly filled with notes of banana, papaya, mango, vanilla and oak. It has a golden color with a subtle greenish shade and the texture is very oily. The rum really clings to the glass if you give it a light swirl. This is a very smooth rum, but don't mistake that for a lack of taste. The slightly frail palate treats you intensely with the same fruity notes found in the nose. This is coupled with a bit of oak, tobacco and earthy, roasted hazelnuts and subtle sugarcane juice sweetness. There's also a taste reminiscent of melted butter. The real trick with this rum though, is how perfectly balanced the notes are. The lovely fruit notes discretely lingers on for a very long time at the back of your throat. This rum is amazing and downright elegant. It might take some time to appreciate the composition, but every glass just seems to get better.

Let this rum rest for a while and you will find more aromas and less sticky alcohol. At first you sense some chemicals (acetone) and alcohol. A strange aroma of chemicals that reminds me of the smell when my wife does her nails. After a while you get more light aromas of fruit, vanilla and some oak.

In mouth the St. Nicholas Abbey 15-Year is smooth and you can find vanilla, dried fruit and some oak. The aftertaste is long and a little bit harsh.

This rum is not sweet enough for me. It is a high quality rum but maybe it is too sophisticated for my palette. This rum reminds me of a light single malt whisky.

I've promised myself that I will drink this rum all the time. It looks good, it smells great and the taste is pure Bajan gold. There is absolutely nothing to dislike about this superbly crafted product. It is extraordinary.

I got to try this one at the UK Rumfest in 2013, and if the 12 is amazing, well then this one is just priceless...one of the absolutely best rums i ever have tasted. It has everything the 12 yo has but much more...it´s fuller, thicker, even more flavorful, i love it!

This has everything you could wan't in a nice old Barbados Rum. The nose has tropic fruits, caramel, banana, a slight vanilla and more. I would have loved to taste a cask strenght expression of this Rum, the 40% seems a shame.

Based on the other reviews, I feel bad rating at an 8, but I need to be honest. It's very good. Smooth. Creamy. I get tropical fruit and smoked oak. It's light, and smooth, and dry.

Interesting sugary smell.

Syrupy full flavoured.

Medicinal, almost like a peated malt whisky (think Laphroaig) but not quite as intense as that.

It is different but not nice enough for me to spend that much money.

Did I mention how cool the bottle is? The cheaper versions do have bottles just as cool though.

This is a really smooth rum, the smell of this rum is fabulous too. Its fresh tropical fruit The smell and flavours marry together well.

I let my wife taste it and her words were, thats nice.

Recently took a trip to Barbados and visited Simon at St. Nicholas Abbey. He explained the detailed process to rum making and we began tasting. I thought the 10yr was good until I had a taste of the 15yr.
Not only is the bottle a work of art, the rum is out of this WORLD.

This is a pretty good bourbon aged rum, but I'm not really a fan of bourbon aged rums.

I felt the 18 year had too much bourbon, so I stepped down to this. This also has very heavy bourbon, and is also very similar to the 18 year. In a side by side comparison, however, I ever so slightly preferred the 18 year. The extra aging gives it just a bit more of a sophisticated flavor.

Like the 18 year, this is a very smooth rum, with smells and tastes of bourbon, spice, pine, tobacco, leather, and a hint of oak, vanilla, brown sugar, and cinnamon. It's just too dry for my liking.

If you like bourbon aging, you'll probably love this rum as much as many other raters do.