St. Nicholas Abbey Rare Single Cask Ltd Reserve 18-Year

pineapple, banana, sugarcane, with hints of wood/oak. nutty finish. Very balanced taste, velvetious and creamy.
A bit of sour smell which makes it really special.

Visiting the Abby plantation and distillery this week I had my mind set on the 12 year reserve. Lucky for me they were out and I opted for the 18 year big brother. This rum has both depth and is quite smooth at only 40%. This rum is not actually distilled at the Abbey, but at Foursquare, I understand the Abbey provides them with the first pressing of sugar cane juice from their Plantation and then stores and blends the rum at their facility.

Back to the rum, uniquely its own not another private label ECS. Lighter and easier to drink than 60-62% expressions but chock full if sweet notes of banana, fresh fruit, mummy jams and cinnamon. Nice rum and great memory. Moves right to the top shelf.

Quite intense flavour, acidic taste, full body, smoky tail.

A friend brought it from Barbados.

Tones of wine even when it's bourbon aged. The tail is smooth and rather short.

Fantastic, initial sweetness yields to a slight bourbon finish. Notes of oak, tobacco and fruit. Amazing.

Man erkennt definitiv am Geschmack seine Herkunft.
Interessante Aromenvielfalt und eine leicht scharfe Note.

Even the smallest drop on your tongue will bring pleasure. A smooth and very richly flavored rum with subtle hints and goes down your throat like if it was lubricated by wd40. Excellent.

I had the pleasure of visiting the St. Nicholas Abbey distillery, and tasted the 5-year and 12-year rums (both of which were great). After the tasting, I purchased an 18-year bottle and patiently waited until arriving home to taste it. I wasn't disappointed!

The flavor of the rum is so complex, and almost hard to pinpoint what flavors came at me first. It's not overly sweet, but starts off with a taste of pineapple, then a bit of raisin, then a deep wooden oak flavor. It's not the typical flavors that would pull me into a rum, but it seemed to really work here.

I gave it a weighted score of 8.55, which I rounded up to 9 for rumratings.com. My scoring system (with weights) is as follows:
-Packaging (10%): 8
-Color (20%): 8.5
-Nose (20%): 6.5
-Palette (25%): 9.5
-Smoothness (25%): 9.5

The Warren family are good people, and Simon led our rum-tasting event. He did a great job of explaining the rums, telling jokes, and entertaining those of us on the tour. We had a great time!

Nice aromatic nose with vanilla, flowers, citrus and spice. The mouth feel is soft and round, and holds a long time. It’s lighty sweet but in a gentle way, there is a little bitterness mid-way that lags a bit. Very good sipping rum.

I cannot say more than has already been posted here. This is without a doubt one of the finest distilled spirits in the world. I have sampled as many as I could over the past 44 years, this is my rum of choice (when available). I am not a fan of Barbados, so I will be looking for a way to St. Nicholas Abbey on the dark side.