El Dorado 1988 25-Year

Earns all the superlatives you know. A truly fantastic rum, but it’s always discussable if it’s worth the money. Because of the price it cannot be an everyday rum for me. Instead it will be a rum for special occasions.
Nose fantastic, taste very good and afterburn fantastic.
Truly recommendable if you have around 500€ left.
Picture: My top five shelf.

This is a truly special rum, and without a doubt the best I've ever had. The presentation of the bottle is already special, matched by a mouth-watering color. The taste is perfect and smooth, with not an ounce of burn. El Dorado has created the perfect rum!

My scoring system (with weights) is as follows:
-Packaging (10%): 10
-Color (20%): 10
-Nose (20%): 8.5
-Palette (25%): 10
-Smoothness (25%): 10

-Total Weighted Score: 9.7 (rounded up to 10 for rumratings.com)

The nose was very good, but to me isn't as flavorful as I'd expect and doesn't reflect the perfection of the taste. Apart from this, it is a perfect rum in every way.

I was hesitant to buy a bottle of this, because of the extremely high price of $499 (DrinkUpNY 2016) and because I'm not really a big fan of El Dorado rums. But this one is very good.

I like the 43%abv on this. Good rums always taste better stronger. Smells and tastes of toffee, brown sugar, caramel, chocolate, and vanilla. Smooth, especially for 43%abv.

I rate this at the top of the 9 scale; very good, but just shy of a 10.

Molto delicato, rotondo, raffinato e setoso, note di vaniglia e cioccolato tipiche demerara, con finali lievemente speziati dovuti all'invecchiamento, ma con poca persistenza. Molto beverino

I wanted a special rum to break 400 ratings and have seen this on the shelf of the lock box at ABC for several years. They finally put it on sale but still over $400 US. I am a big fan of Guayana rums and have huge expectations. Great dark brown color, rich scent, wow this is incredible similar to Centenario Real & 30, Zafra 30 & Don Pancho 30. Very smooth lots of depth I think the best rum I have ever tried. Spoiled for life now 43% mildly sweet very delicious nice lingering burn in a good way.need to put this away for my next special occasion.

The best I've ever had, amazingly smooth and delicious

You can truly taste the 25years - What a taste experience and GREAT nose!
It is my understanding that this vintage 1988 is a bit on the sweeter side compared to other vintages. I would say that the sweeter side together with this complex rum brings out the masterpiece.

Had expected a little more for that price. 9.5 would have been the right grade.

While the El Dorado series of rums are good and especially the 15yo, I was disappointing by the 21yo and thus was a bit apprehensive of getting the 25yo, especially in light of its considerable cost. There was no reason to hesitate however as the rum was probably the best I have ever tasted. The flavour was of a sweet oakey syrup with deep toasted notes, in near perfect balance with both the aromas and alcohol. Worth the money for true connoisseurs!

Rich, smooth and mellow with
caramel and heavy fruit cake.