The Rum Masters 2016 results

While their flight of White Standard expressions offered “very little difference between most of the rums”, Silver medallists The Real McCoy 3 Year Old Rum and Ron Cartavio Blanco “really stood out” for their “pleasant, fruity” notes.

Hayes said: “I’m pleased none stood out as having sugar added. However very few shared the expected sugar cane attributes of rum.”

The second team, chaired by Georgi Radev, bar manager of Mahiki, tackled a flight of White Premium rums.

Chris Gutierrez, account manager of Spirit Cartel; Peter Holland, co-founder of The Floating Rum Shack; and Alex Wolpert, founder of East London Liquor Company found “a few very interesting rums” amongst the offering.

Melita Kiely analyses a flight of dark rum

The first Master medal of the day was swiftly awarded to Havana Club 3 Year Old, which the group felt had “lots of cocktail potential”.

The panel said: “It was great to see good rums with plenty of flavour, not just light, vodka-like rums.”

Our third team was made up of Roger Barnes, director of Spirits Elite; Miguel A. Hernandez, beverage manager of Engawa Restaurant; Alessio Franzese, bar manager of Rum and Sugar; and Gareth Bell, bar manager of Rum Kitchen Notting Hill. Chairing was Melita Kiely, senior staff writer at The Spirits Business. The group rounded off the white rums with a flight of super-premium expressions.

Barnes explained: “In this category I’m looking for rum that has character, which is a very hard thing to achieve with white rum. It tends to be a much cleaner spirit, which is why you find so many white rums are aged and then stripped of their colour.”

Thankfully the flight delivered, with a Gold medal awarded to St Nicholas Abbey’s white expression for its “sweet and lovely aromas” and a Silver to the “refreshing, fruity” Skotlander.

“As a mixologist, these rums should be something that you can make into a very smooth cocktail,” added Franzese. “I think both of these medal winners could be used to achieve that.”

Having judged the smallest of the white rum flights, Kiely’s panel pressed on to gold variants with a flight of rums aged up to seven years. Impressed by the variety on offer, the panel awarded seven medals, four of which were Gold: Rum Bar Gold, Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum, Ron Tremols El Toro, and Rhum Barbados 5 Years.

Bell said: “The spread of rums showed there’s a lot of uniqueness and diversity of flavours. It’s very hard to stand out in this category as it’s a bit saturated, so the ones that scored higher were the ones that had something very different to offer.”

‘With aged rums, you’re looking for something you can keep in your glass that changes as you return to it‘

Kimber’s panel took on Gold Aged 8-12 Years, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the small flight, which attracted one Gold and one Silver medal.

Knight said: “It was a very interesting representation of the category. St Nicholas Abbey 10 Year Old Rum really stood out as an example of the range.”

“The rums really show how diverse this category is,” added Hughes.

Rounding off gold rum, Kiely’s team took on a flight of Gold Aged Over 13 Years.“The two most important things for me in this category were intensity and depth – that’s what you want with aged rums,”said Franzese. “Something that is going to last as you drink it; something you can keep in your glass that changes as you return back to it over time.”

Judges were delighted with the flight, awarding Murderer’s Bay Gold Rum a Master medal – “intense with great depth” – while “nicely balanced” St Nicholas Abbey’s 15 Year Old Rum received a Gold.

Bell and Franzese assess the offerings of the day

It was time to depart age classifications and move forward to price point, where Radev’s team assessed Gold Premium, a group of “over-sweet” rums that for the most part failed to impress – aside from “smooth, light” Gubba Gold Rum, which earned a Silver medal.

Of the flight, the panel commented: “The real rum flavours are missing. They disappear from the sweetness and caramel and vanilla.”

The next flight, Gold Super Premium, fared a little better. Although initially earmarked as disappointing by Kimber’s panel, the flight produced a “really enjoyable” Master medallist in the form of La Hechicera Fine Aged Rum.

Hayes said: “Although all the rums were enjoyable, only a few really stood out as being a really great example of the style.”

The group progressed to a selection of Dark Aged Up To 7 Years, which were deemed “an excellent assortment of styles”, and produced seven medals.