Cadenhead‘s Green Label Rum

This Green Label release comes from Cadenhead's, the long-running Scottish bottler whose rums are issued in the unsweetened, natural-strength tradition of a whisky house. The spirit is a nine-year-old Nicaraguan, a column-distilled molasses rum from a country whose aged styles tend to run cleaner and more spirit-forward than the sweeter Spanish-style norm.

Nine years in ex-bourbon wood give it a golden cast and a profile built on barrel. The nose is vanilla, oak and a soft sweetness, the palate woody and warm with allspice and a grainy, almost whisky-like edge, and the finish carries oak and baking spice over a medium length. At 46% and free of any dosage, it drinks dry and characterful, a pour aimed at drinkers who want their rum closer to a single malt than to a dessert.