Overview
Brand: Rhum Barbancourt
Origin: Société du Rhum Barbancourt, Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti
Still: Pot
Age: 15 years
Finish: French Limousin
ABV: 43%
Back during the COVID years, when my bar (read: kitchen counter) was beginning to fill up with rum, I picked up this bottle of Rhum Barbancourt to celebrate my birthday. It was among a trio of my then-most expensive bottles, including Ron Abuelo 12 Años and Pusser's 15 year.
Many years and one new house later, this bottle has been plucked from the dusty reaches of my office cabinet (where my wife is happy I have room to store my rum) for the final tasting before celebrating 300 reviews.
Rhum Barbancourt 15 year is a cane juice-based rhum distilled in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It is then blended and aged in French Limousin oak casks for 15 years, before being bottled at 43% ABV. It's an oldie, but is it a goodie?
Appearance
Orange, medium viscosity
Nose
Caramel candies, light butterscotch, hand sanitizer alcohol, fresh sugarcane, vanilla bean
Palate
Fresh-cut sugarcane, vanilla bean, burnt caramel, star anise
Finish
Short, thin, bright; vanilla bean, oak, fermenting sugarcane, hint of nutmeg
Rating: 5/10
Summary
Light and thin would be the two initial descriptors I'd share for Barbancourt's 15 year expression. It's not a bad rum, but there really isn't a lot going on here. It retains the thin quality I get from the other core bottlings, with some nuance applied thanks to the long aging.
Barbancourt 15 year's nose is pleasant until about the mid-point, after which you get stuffed with raw hand sanitizer alcohol vapors; before that, we have caramel candies, butterscotch, and vanilla bean. The palate is equally thin and leans towards the unbalanced side of things, with sugarcane, vanilla bean, and burnt caramel as the sole major notes, with star anise playing a minor role. This rhum's finish is short, thin, but bright, with oak and a pinch of nutmeg joining other flavors; at least it doesn't taste over-oaked!
Barbancourt manages to have a palatable, long-aged rhum with this expression, but it's still puzzling how much alcohol I get despite the comparatively low proof. Despite usually being a champion of aged rums, I think this 15 year and the other aged rhums lose out to their unaged 110 proof sibling in the competition for my favored commercial Haitian rum.