S.B.S The 1423 Single Barrel Selection Panama 2006. I’ve not been seeking out rums from Panama lately. Personally, they aren’t the type of rum that excites me.

On the whole I haven’t really been bothering all that much with “ron” from Spanish-speaking countries. This is partly due to the fact they just don’t interest me but mostly because you never quite know what nonsense they have added to their “ron”.

I believe, this is a position many Rum Enthusiasts will also have experienced. Having said that, I still seem to find space on the blog to write about “ron” and when travelling abroad, I find the Spanish style rums are often the most accessible. So I end up buying a few “cheap” bottles. Mostly they end up getting mixed on a weekend.

S.B.S The 1423 Single Barrel Selection Panama 2006 is not a rum I am planning on mixing. This should be a very competent sipping experience.

Bottled by Danish Importer/bottler 1423 this Panamanian rum was distilled at an unnamed distillery on a column still. Bottled at 55% ABV Cask Strength this shows no signs of additives, when using the Hydrometer. It is un-chill filtered. Only 311 bottles of this rum are available – it was distilled in 2006 and bottled in 2018. It is noted as being 12 years old. Whilst the distillery is not named I will guess that it hails from the Don Jose Distillery – who produce the Abuelo range of rums.

The rum comes in the trademark S.B.S stubby bottle with a cut out card sleeve to store the rum in. The presentation is simple, yet striking and you get a decent amount of information about the rum on the bottle. No fairy tales, which is always good to see. The rum can be found quite commonly in Danish online stores but Skylark Spirits are acting as the importer in the UK. Currently some of their bottlings are available on Amazon and at Gerry’s in Soho. This rum retails at around the £90 mark.

I think that pretty much exhausts my knowledge of this bottling and the people behind it, so lets see if this bottling can make me enthusiastic about Panamanian rum again.

In the glass S.B.S Panama 2006 is a dark brown colour with a slightly orange tinge.

The nose is light, as I expected with a lot of toffee and vanilla. There is a decent amount of “potency” on the nose, with some nice spicy, almost aggressive booze soaked woody notes. Peanut crunch and milk chocolate line up alongside some milky coffee and some light aromas of citrus peel.

Sipping the Panama 2006 is quite a spicy affair but one which is pleasantly surprising. The rum has a milky sweetness to it – like milky breakfast tea. This goes alongside a very spicy and ginger heavy mix of white pepper and red pepper as you move past the initial sip. There is a good hit of tobacco and tar on the mid palate which is balanced nicely, by the sweeter notes.

Beneath this, I get a slight hit of menthol and some peppermint creams. This gives the rum an almost cleansing mouthfeel.

Finish wise it is long, peppery and a little sharp. I quite like the sharpness to be honest. This is your typical Panama style rum, dialled up a notch or three. It has enough about it to appeal beyond those, who might usually go after the lighter Panama style of rum.

The more you sip this, the more you discover – cherries, cloves and coffee all put in an appearance, in what is quite a complex sipper. I didn’t need to dilute this rum in any way, as it was very drinkable at the 55% ABV.

This is much better than I was expecting and I might not pass over some more Cask Strength Panamanian rum in the future. Like a couple of cask strength Nicaraguan rums I tried at Rum Fest, maybe their is a future for the “rons” amongst more serious Cask Strength junkies.

This had a similar profile to the Mezan Panama releases albeit slightly less perfumed. The extra ABV certainly released a lot more of the flavours. I suspect head to head, I might find the lower proof Mezan a little thin nowadays.

A pleasant surprise.