Notes: Distillery founded in 1703. Fermented in oak vats (many distilleries now use stainless steel) using water filtered through the islands coral geology (limestone aquifer) from of an almost 250 ft deep well. A blend of rums, some of the blend is double distilled in copper pot stills and other parts distilled in a copper Coffey column still (a Coffey still is usually used for Irish whiskey) – then aged in ex bourbon oak casks for various periods of time then blended to profile for each Mount Gay product so proportions of each distillate and the ages of each component may vary widely but it tastes the same. An analogy would be the blending of blended Scotch the component spirits may differ widely from year to year but the customer always gets the same taste. One of the older expression Mt Gay line the youngest being Mount Gay Eclipse Silver ,it’s older sibling of the Mount Gay Eclipse , and the slightly younger sibling of the Mount Gay Extra Old with the Mount Gay 1703 Cask Selection being the oldest. This rum is meant to be a slightly hardier version of the eclipse series using 2 to 7-year-old rums blended to profile with a higher proof (100 vs. 80) and more potdistilled rather than column distilled rum than their usual blendings.

Appearance: Dark bronze copper in the bottle, light gold in the glass clear as a bell.On swirling it leaves a nice oily coat on the glass with thick legs and drops forming after a bit.

First Impression: Dark fruits,vanilla, leather,rich and multilayered,spicy.

Taste: Nicely woody,sweet,with dark fruits,vanilla notes with a pleasant  amount of wood and char with fair amount of bourbon sweetness, buttery entry with  a touch of sweetness, notes of leather, fruitcake, molasses. Deadly smooth with only slight burn on the edges of your tongue to let you know this is a serious 100 proof rum, not some sissy water.

Drinks: The Mount Gay Black is full of flavor and stands up to anything you care to throw at it but it doesn’t dumb things down like the molasses bomb called Meyers Rum.  Flavorful, full-bodied and with a good backbone to it is a great mixer for classic simple cocktails or the more baroque Tiki classics.

Bottle: Slightly different in shape than the younger  Mount Gay rum bottles: it’s a bit wider and shorter than those but does not have  heavy clear glass bottle with decanter style base of the Mount Gay 1703 Cask Selection. It does share many of its other basic attributes;  flask shaped with rounded shoulders and straight neck resembles a single barrel bourbon bottle. Front of bottle has embossed “SINCE 1703″ and a coat of arms. Paper label with drawing of Barbados and multicolored lettering also add to the antique feel. Black neck foil with red lettering with a screw cap closure. Clear glass shows off the color of the rum nicely.

Other: Mount Gay has always produced a line of solid rums that can be found at almost any liquor store and at better bars.

Final Thoughts: A great rum to mix with from a flavor and cost standpoint that delivers  a lot of flavor for not a lot of money.

Website: http://www.mtgayrum.com

Quick loading, and somewhat informative, nice videos. A trifle hard to navigate.