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.

Well over 2,600 aged dark rums enjoyed and El Dorado 25 year is easily on my Top 30 list. It is sublime, super smooth, like molten chocolate, no burn at all and contains plenty of amazing flavors. I tried this amazing rum the first time at the Marriott hotel in Georgetown Guyana and have had the luxury of enjoying it 4 times since that in rum bars in New York and in Chicago.

Detailed scoring analysis:
10/100 Packaging, bottle and label design 10
10/100 Color of this rum 10
15/100 Nose test 14
20/100 Palate test 20
15/100 Afterburn of this rum 15
15/100 Availability to purchase this rum 11
15/100 Ultimate value for money 2
Total score 82

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.

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.

Definitely a treat. Coats your mouth with sweet nectar while still making it’s alcoholic presence known. If you don’t know the price as you sip you want more immediately; if you do know the price, you may think twice before you splurge as to live to sip on another fine day.