Dos Maderas PX 5+5

This has gained its place in my top 3 after one glass... VERY smooth and sweet, that's how i like them! Don't bother adding ice.

Highly recommended for Diplomatico-fans!

Starts with a nice sweet aroma followed by a slight nostril burn. Smells like molasses with some fruit on the tail end. First (and second) taste holds an alcohol burn. Once the burn fades you can taste the sherry. In a nutshell, it's a burning molasses flavor followed by a faint bitterness. Thought I would like it more after reading the reviews. Definitely a quality rum but something just doesn't work for me. Would drink it if offered to me but probably won't buy it again.

Intense dark colour. Brown caramely (darker than the panama 21 years)

Strong vapeurs of alcoohol right after opening the bottle. But evolves very nicely.

After 10-15 min, Sweeter nose caramel and toffee. Hints of oxydized aromas (walnut) - from the Sherry and Jerez I guess. Some fruit aromas like lime, dried apricot, fig and citrus fruit.

Super sweet candied dark fruit attack. Sirupy medium-long finish dominated by fig flavors. No alcool feeling at all ... Reminds me of Fortified wines (Porto / Madere)

This taste nothing like rum to me. I'm not a wine fan and this tastes like a Merlot to me.
Dont get me wrong; I like variance in my rums but this one is just not one for my tastebud.
I had to reach for my 1919 just to get that taste out of my mouth.

Fin duft og en super smag, lækker sødme og længde. Perfekt rom til en meget venlig pris.
Absolut et genkøb.

At first this comes of very bourbony and harsh, with added suger. This really needs to breathe, a lot! After 30 minutes in the glass almost all the whiskey/bourbon taste is gone, and the sherry flavour is fruiter than sweet. Nice tones of dried fruit and sherry, and a lovely colour.

The way it's created gives it some extra credit, I'm a sucker for a creative way of getting a complex taste together.

Got the Dos Maderas gift pack as a gift from the RumRatings club team.
The content is a full bottle of 5+5 and four samples, one each of the rum base, the Dos Cortados Sherry, the 5+3 and the Don Guido Pedro Ximenez(PX) Sherry.

I started the tasting with the base which is a blend of 5yo rum from Guyana(DDL) and 5yo rum from Barbados (a little unclear if it comes from WIRD or Foursquare, seen both data) imported to Jerez in Spain, it’s quite good and I can clearly recognize Demerara. There’s probably a decent part Port Mourant in it.
Thereafter I went on with the Dos Cortados Sherry, which is very dry.
Then time for the 5+3, there the 5 stands for the aging of the base in the Caribbean and the 3 for 3 years of Solera aging in used Dos Cortados barrels in Jerez. These 3 years gives a clear footprint to the base and makes it drier. See further review below the 5+3.
The fourth sample is the super sweet and very dark red PX Sherry. A dessert wine.

Finally the tasting of the 5+5 which is the 5+3 finished for two more Solera years in used PX Sherry barrels. Have also read that they add a little PX Sherry to it. It’s very dark and quite sweet even if I had expected it even more sweet. These two last years and the eventual added flavors really gives it an significant flavor.
From nose to the medium long finish I recognize the sweet PX Sherry, raisins, vanilla, fruits and quite many other notes.

A peculiarity with this rum is that it start as English styled rum and finish up as a Latin styled rum in my opinion. Maybe it's because the two brothers-in-law, Williams & Humbert, who started the company, had a British background and therefore used English styled rum in the base.

This rum is too sweet and has to much taste of the PX Sherry in my opinion, but it has been very enjoyable to follow the development of this rum from the base via 5 + 3 to 5 + 5 and see how this aging (and eventually some added flavors) have changed taste and appearance.

Pictures: The content of the gift pack & My opened bottle of the 5+5.

Reall classy rum.
Intens and complex aromas, nice soft mouthfill and a beautifull lenght. Incredible value for money.

Duften er sød og rund. Man fornemmer hurtigt lagringen på sherryfadene. Duften er lidt anderledes, men helt igennem lækker.

Smagen lever fuldt ud op til duften. En sød og meget blød rom, der smager af mere.
En rigtig lækker rom.

En stor anbefaling herfra.
Eneste fejl var at jeg ikke fik købt den noget før...

I love rum. I thought buying this expensive bottle, I was treating myself with some godly nectar. Unfortunately this doesn't smell or taste anything like rum. Unless you can try before you buy, I would avoid purchasing this... whatever it is.
(70.75 CAD in Dec 2016)