This is without the doubt the most difficult rum review I have done so far. When I first got into rum this was the first rum I bought online.

Confused by all the information available on the Internet and still with little understanding of dark, golden, demerara, pot still, column still, agricole (god help us) etc I decided to try a bottle of Chairman’s Reserve. I’m still at a loss as to exactly why I decided to try this particular rum. Was it the unusual dumpy bottle? The mostly positive reviews? The price? The awards? Was I drunk? Who knows I really cannot remember……

I plumped for a bottle from Amazon. I think it cost my including postage and packaging about £23. Which considering this was someone who had bought only supermarket rum was pretty expensive! I’m not sure if I bought it to convince myself that supermarket swill was just as good or whether I was really intending to try every rum I could get my hands on.

The rum could have been a massive disappointment. It was coming up against Cockspur 5 star Fine Rum. That was setting me back about £13 a bottle a the time so it had to be good because I could get two bottles for the same price!

It’s difficult not to biased with regard this rum. It was the rum which made me realise just how good rum could be. It convinced me that a more expensive rum could actually be worth the extra money. It’s the bottle that led me to write and set up this blog. Over two years on I find it amazing that I’m sitting sipping this rum (I’ll add cola soon don’t worry) and contemplating just how I’m going to actually review it. Anyway here goes……….

Chairmans Reserve is produced by St Lucia Distillers it is aged in Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and Buffalo Trace barrels. It is aged for around 5 years and is blended using continuous and pot still rums.

The rum is quite a dark not navy or demerara rum dark but definitely darker than say a Mount Gay or Bacardi Gold. The extra ageing is noticeable.

The bottle itself is one of the dumpy style rum bottles. The rum is around the £20 mark and whilst it would be brilliant if it had a cork stopper it doesn’t it has a metallic stopper. A shame but not a surprise at the price.

On the nose Chairman’s is quite smoky and reminiscent in many ways of the drier Bajan rums such as R L Seales 10 Year Old.  It is not a sweet smelling rum though it does have a notes of tropical fruit.  It isn’t, like many of the younger rums laced with sugar.  It doesn’t have any caramel or treacle notes like many cheap mixers.

Clearly, I’m quite sentimental about this rum but that is not without good cause. It’s the first rum I tasted where I thought “wow”. It’s an excellent rum. It’s sweet and fruity but has a bit of smokiness to it as well. For a 5 year old rum its quite complex. It can be sipped and it isn’t rough or harsh. There is a bit of an alcohol burn but even that is quite smoky and pleasant.  To me this is what rum should be.  To complain it isn’t smooth (many peoples definition of smooth is rum that has been heavily sugared).  This is real rum done properly.  It has the ACR (and whilst that doesn’t always mean its unadulterated – this definitely has no additives)

Chairman’s is now available in Sainsburys for £20 and I will be ensuring that I have a constant supply of this rum.  It’s really a bargain at this price.

St Lucia distillers seem to be quite overlooked on the Internet and world of rum blogging this may be because their rums don’t seem to be available to readily in the US of A so here is a link to their website.

http://www.saintluciarums.com

I would also recommend the Chairmans Reserve White Label and Forgotten Casks also Admiral Rodney. In fact I would recommend anything St Lucia Distillers produce.  It’s all been excellent for me thus far!