Ron Zacapa Centenario Solera Gran Reserva

Introduction

Ron Zacapa Centenario Solera Gran Reserva. If you walk into pretty much any supermarket, high-street specialist or (especially) an airport duty free shop today, you are going to see this bottle, with its little woven palm band. Ron Zacapa has been the poster boy for “Premium” rum for a very long time.

For Ron Zacapa enthusiasts you may be mistaken for thinking this is a “new” variant. Perhaps a re-creation of the “15” which you will still probably find in tiny Supermercado’s in Spanish coastal resorts.

It’s not. This is their “flagship” Ron Zacapa 23 Year/Anos/Solera/Sistema Solera etc in what may be its final name re-branding.

I’ve already written a full piece tracking the history of this brand and its endless label changes, from the days when it was called Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Años right down to the current bottling where they have quietly scrubbed the number “23” from the front entirely. If you want the full breakdown of how Diageo’s marketing team shifted the goalposts and why they were forced to drop the age claims, you can read my article on all that here.

Honestly though, despite all the endless boardroom meetings, focus groups and changes to the labelling, the actual rum inside the bottle hasn’t really changed that much since Diageo got their hands on it. Be that for good or bad!

To be completely fair to them, they did make one recent tweak to the recipe. Following the introduction of EU regulations capping added sugar in rum at 20g/L, Zacapa quietly reduced their dosage from around 24g/L down to a compliant 19g/L. So while we are still dealing with an altered, multi-column still distillate, it is still rum as far as the EU is concerned.

Tasting

In the glass, Ron Zacapa Solera Gran Reserva pours a dark amber with distinct mahogany highlights. It’s caramel coloured without a doubt. A fair bit I would suggest.

On the nose, it is sweet and approachable. Easy going and very “one note”.

Sweetness, its sugary and the rum itself feels thin, muted and its as if its trying its best to disguise it is a 40% ABV spirit.

It is when people who don’t know the difference between their arse and their elbow start telling you how smooth it is. It’s an alcoholic spirit for fucks sake not a Chocolate mousse.

You’ll find a bit of raisin and dried fruit possibly from the Pedro Ximénez casks used or maybe this is all from the garden in the clouds. Who knows?

Ron Zacapa Centenario Solera Gran Reserva does smell quite manufactured and lacks the honest oak integration you get with an unadulterated product, but there is absolutely nothing horrible or massively unpleasant about the way this smells. It just doesn’t smell much like rum.

The entry on the palate is soft and sweet. It has been blended from the ground up to be completely frictionless, ensuring there is absolutely no alcohol burn or rough edges to scare off a casual drinker or an utter fuckwit. The sweet sugary notes from the nose translate directly onto the tongue.

Taste wise with Ron Zacapa Centenario Solera Gran Reserva, there are no nasty off-notes and nothing “horrible” going on here at all. It will undoubtedly still be a massive crowd pleaser. The issue is simply that the sweetness makes everything feel a little simple and one dimensional. If you let it sit on the palate, you can actually find a little bit of dry oak spice, bitter cocoa, and a touch of tobacco underneath, showing there is some kind of rum character hiding in there. But the overriding theme is a manufactured, one-note smoothness rather than genuine complexity.

The finish is short and insipid. Saccharin artificial sweetness lingers, leaving a light coating on your mouth. A faint hint of spiced oak shows up right at the end. Ot washes away pretty quickly. So don’t get too excited. It is very easy to sip, but that ease is clearly engineered rather than achieved purely through traditional distilling skill.

There is a reason why they only refer to a Master Blender……

Verdict

Let’s be fair about this. If you want an easy-drinking, approachable rum and you don’t care about additives or the brand’s history of manipulating its labels, this does exactly what it sets out to do. It remains a massive crowd pleaser. There is nothing offensive here; it is just a very simple, sweet profile.

If you are looking for authentic, honest rum with real depth and complexity, this is exactly the kind of product we are trying to move past. It is a rum built in a corporate boardroom to appeal to the widest possible mass market.

When you compare this to the transparent work being done by distilleries putting out pure, unadulterated spirits, the cracks in the Zacapa facade really start to show. Like many of you who read this site, I’ve gone past this type of profile. We deserve honesty in what we are drinking, and while I commend them for at least dropping the additives to comply with the rules, it still feels a bit too simple and one dimensional for my tastes.

Final Thought: A rum for people who don’t really like rum