A.F.D. Bacoo 11 Year Old Rum

Bacoo 11 from Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos carries a clear eleven-year statement and, unusually for the Dominican Republic, is built from sugar-cane juice rather than molasses, though it is finished very much in the soft Spanish idiom. Column distilled and matured in ex-bourbon casks, it leans on vanilla and caramel from the wood.

The nose runs caramel, vanilla, orange and dark chocolate, the palate adds toffee, molasses and a nutty cocoa note, and the finish stays sweet with orange and a touch of bitterness for length. It is rounded and easy at 40%, drinking as a dessert-leaning sipper that takes ice or stands alone happily. Of the core Bacoo range this is the fullest and most satisfying, though it is still firmly an approachable, friendly rum rather than a dry or deeply layered one.