Produced in Mexico by Licores Veracruz.  The rum is bottled in small quantities and aged in white oak barrels (ex bourbon).  There is more information on the bottle. Unfortunately other than the attached label it is all in Spanish!

Licores Veracruz have been trading as a going concern for 55 years but have only been exporting their products for 11 of those years.  The Mocambo brand is imported into the United Kingdom by WSI LTD (Wine and Spirit International http://www.wineandspirit.com) who seem to import a number of unique products.  The Mocambo 15 years is marketed as a premium rum.

The presentation of the rum is very pleasing.  There is no cardboard sleeve but the rum comes in a very trendy tall 50cl bottle (yes that’s 50cl or half a litre).  The rum retails at around £20, despite the smaller size bottle, this is still reasonable for a rum aged for 15 years.  As already mentioned the main labelling on the bottle is written in Spanish apart from a little bit of information on the importer and a UK barcode.  This is on the rear label and it does look a little like a colour photocopy, rather than the original.  The information in English is to be found on a label attached to the neck with a gold fastening.  The overall presentation is completed with a real cork plastic topped stopper.  The gold sealing over the stopper is a bit difficult to get off due to the slimness of the bottle.  Scissors are definitely recommended.  Uniquely each bottle contains hand written information relating to the bottle and barrel number.  This gives a feeling of exclusivity to the rum and adds a little charm.

Now onto the actual rum, as all is looking very promising thus far.  In the bottle the rum is a very rich dark brown colour.  When poured in the glass this rich dark brown hue continues.  Upon nosing, the rum gives off a strong caramel and brown sugar smell but with a smokiness beneath, suggesting a complex and rewarding sipping experience.  The rum is reminiscent upto this point of Columbian rums such as Dictador and La Hechicera or Venezuela’s Pampero range.  However, it doesn’t seem to quite hit the senses completely in the way those rums do.  It doesn’t seem to be quite as pungent.  The initial smell seems to calm down considerably once the rum reaches room temperature.

Upon sipping it gives initially quite a nice burst of flavour, however this is quickly overtaken by intense spiciness.  No flavours come through that I was expecting such as dried fruits and chocolate or rich molasses.  Instead the rum gives very little sweetness at all, the overall profile is that of spiciness and the finish is very short giving way to an almost agricole like grassy/oaked ending.

To be honest the rum looks and smells great but is let down by the actual taste of the rum.  The rum when mixed with a little cola seems to lose some of the spiciness which was present when sipped.  The tongue no longer tingles too much.  Unfortunately the almost agricole like finish of the rum seems to come through more.  It gives very much an aged agricole like aftertaste.  Again the rum smells excellent but once in the mouth it seems to lose so much of the promised flavours.  The smokiness becomes an almost over oaked flavour and whilst the sugar and dried fruits are evident a little it is nowhere near as tasty or as complex as it should be.

This isn’t a bad rum per se it is the first time I have tried a rum that is Single Barrel.  It’s just a little disappointing.  Single Barrel means the rum is bottled straight from the barrel with no blending.  Personally I feel Mocambo could have produced a better 15 year old rum by blending. Then again this is what they wanted to do.  I do wonder what a blended Mocambo could be like though.  Very good I would imagine!