Notes: Brugal has just recently come out with this new aged but white rum joining a growing category which we do not really understand the point of. Using rums aged for a minimum of 2 years up to 5 years in used bourbon casks then blended to profile, the rum is triple carbon filtered to remove any color  before bottling. Brugal has historically ( since 1888) been a large producer in the Dominican Republic. This molasses based rum is on of several products or line extension that they make. We hope to formally review their other products at some point in the future, but we can say the ones we have had were all good quality especially for the money.

Appearance: Bright clear almost sparkling in appearance.Relatively thin edge line with thin legs forming fairly fast, which then become droplets

First Impression: Pleasing sugar cane molasses,vanilla, and creamy notes with dry, leathe r,char and slight mineral notes and not some raw alcohol and off notes that you come to expect with white rums.

Taste: Toasted caramel,vanilla, minerals, molasses, persimmons, charcoal, oak, and leather notes. Traces of tobacco and barrel char, with a touch of fruit form the somewhat long slightly drying finish

Drinks: Works very nicely in umbrella drinks where you are looking for a rum with more backbone to stand up against all those juices and spices. Also works in classic rum drinks where you want something more flavor forward than a anejo but not a raw young white rum.

Bottle: In a departure from their usual colors (brown bottle and gold netting) to highlight their new product Brugal has gone with a clear glass bottle and white woven netting Art work/labels are printed on clear plastic and applied  on to the bottle.Bottle has “Ron Dominicano” stamped on to the shoulder of the bottle in font. Dark blue screwcap closure is a bit of a hybrid- the plastic spout inserted into the neck of the bottle is very similar to what you see when there is one of those (thankfully lacking) anti refill devices stuck in the bottle so common in south of the border bottles where counterfeiting and refilling is much more widespread.

Other: All sugar cane is sourced in Dominican Republic and processed within 48 hours of being cut and harvested.

Final Thoughts:  For just a few dollars more than what you would pay for a bottle of Bacardi you can have something much better . Price is very good to excellent for the value- many brands of aged then filtered white rums charge significantly more without a significant boost in quality.

Website: http://www.brugal-ron.com/US/productos.html

Interesting and informative to some degree, but lacking much information and pictures in the main webpage itself. 132 page guide to Dominican Republic is one of it’s best features