Plantation Guyana Cognac Ancestral Finish 17-Year

I'm generally not a big fan of cognac/bourbon aged rums, as they tend to be too dry for me, but my friends at Vinoble Skanderborg strongly suggested I try this. So I grabbed a bottle, and I'm glad I took their advice!

Smells and tastes of molasses, cinnamon, spice, cognac, oak, bourbon, and honey. Nicely sweet for a bourbon aged rum, and tremendously smooth at 56.3%! It says it was aged in bourbon for 15 years, and cognac for 2 years, but the bourbon isn't dominant (a good thing in my opinion).

This is a 10 to me!

The rum was distilled from molasses in 1999 in pot stills. In 2016 it came in cask strength as a single barrel filling in the 300 bottles.

I have association with 1997 Enmore from Rum Nation (RN is more flowery). Woody, a little bit musty nose. The profile is woody and sweet with honey like an Enmore.
I get the wood with honey first. The caramel, vanilla and maple syrup.
Followed by tobacco and some hints of Cognack (some dry orange peels). Deeper in the glas is earthy barrel. The nose is very good, balanced, I like the cognack finish.

The taste starts with some gum, this is a good aged rum. Then sweet with honey and became more sweeter with caramel, vanilla and wood. The taste is viskous I get notes of maple syrup now.
The middle is again sweet with honey, slightly tannins and wood. Followed by sweet maple syrup, tobacco and cognack (the dry orange peels).
The finish is a little bit spicy, then woody, I still have some tannins on the palet. Then sweetness from the honey and some tobacco again.

I like this sweet juice, it could be a little bit too sweet for some conoisseurs. I think Demerara has sweetened this rum (this is a Demerara secret ingredient ;)
Because this is a single cask, it's very good. But the complexity could be a little bit higher.
Therefore I would rate this rum with 87 points.

A more complex rum of this type would be the Rum Nation Enmore 1997.

Nose: wood, honey, caramel, vanilla, maple syrup, tobacco, some oranges (cognack), earthy barrel
Taste initial: some gum, honey, caramel, vanilla, wood, maple syrup
Middle: honey, slightly tannins and wood, again maple syrup, tobacco, cognack and dry orange peels
Finish: some spice, wood, some tannins, honey, tobacco
Aftertaste: honey, wood, tobacco, some marple syrup

Sweetness: 3/5
Fruit: 2.5/5
Spice: 3/5
Mildness: 3.5/5
Complexity: 4/5
Value (120€): 4/5

Destilleret 1999- aftappet 2016. 56,3%.
Cask no.1 - bottle no. 360.

Fantastisk velsmagende rom, der på trods af sin høje alkoholprocent ikke virker specielt skarp. Et meget stort 9 tal. Helt klart den bedste Plantation jeg har smagt til dato.

Each Plantation rum tells its own story and that is part of the fun of their single cask brews. This example is very good but, to my taste, not as sweet as I like.

I almost always pair my rums with the Cuban cigars that I smoke. Depending on the rum, I drink it neat, over ice or mixed some ice and Coke. The better the rum, the more likely I’ll drink it neat or over ice. This example, fell into the coke added category where almost any decent rum tastes good.

Unfortunately, for the price, I was looking for more. The initial whiff doesn’t give traditional rum flavors. They are too hidden in the alcohol.

Good but not as great as it should be, but I added a point for Planation’s unique single casks.

Very strong. No trace of cognac. The price is to high. I thing that for identical money I can get better variant of plantation single cask rum.

15 let v sudech po bourbonu a 2 roky v sudech po koňaku Ancestral. Plněno v sudové síle 56,3% alkoholu. Cena za toto plnění je od 3200 korun.
Původ: Guyana
Aroma: Ostře kořenitá a štiplavá vůně, až do chilli. Rumové pralinky, rozinky, skořice, hřebíček, staré exotické dřevo, hořká silná čokoláda, propolis. (87 b)
Chuť: Pikantní, typicky rumová chuť, s malým nádechem sladkosti lesního medu. Hřebíček, včelí plástve, propolis. V závěru trochu vysychá. Chuťově mi napřed připomněl styl Compagnie des Indes. Po přidání pár kapek vody se teprve rozvine. Chuť v puse skoro exploduje, med se zvýrazní, sladkost nabírá na intenzitě. (89 b)
Body: 88/100
Shrnutí: Ochutnávali jsme s kamarádem na další rumové párty. Vzhledem k už docela brutální ceně jsme využili možnosti koupit vzorek v baru Kocour. Mít víc, než jen každý jednoho frťana, určitě bychom víc experimentovali s vodou, vypadalo to s ní velmi nadějně. Měli jsme vzorek z lahve číslo 024, sud 4. Tohoto rumu jsou jen 4 sudy.