Reserve

[Ed Hamilton]

Like so many other special name, 'Reserve,' doesn't have any legal meaning. But having said that, many distillers reserve that name for their finest rum. Havana Club using the name Anejo Reserva. Anejo only means old in Spanish but combined with the Reserva, Anejo Reserva should be their best rum, or at least one of the best. As discussed elsewhere in this forum Anejo Reserva has gotten better reviews than their Anejo 7 Anos, & year old.

There is also a plain Anejo which is only a few years old and lacks a lot of the sophistication of the older blended rums.

[Mika J]

Hi,

It seems to me at least that rum world is rather fond of superlatives and other quality-emphasizing words, more so than whisky world for example. "Super-Premium", Grand Anejo, Special Old Reserve, Reserva Especial Commemorativo etc.

What is interesting is that to my best knowledge (based on interviews made some years ago) the age statements are not as well controlled or legally agreed to mean 1 thing and 1 thing only amongst the various Caribbean producers. So even if the bottle says "15-years old", unlike in the world of whisky, this does NOT necessarily guarantee that the youngest distillate that has gone into that bottle is actually 15-years old. There have been attempts to make this a solid legal matter which would uniformalize practices amongst various rum producers but as said, to my best knowledge so far no agreement has been reached.

Naturally many producers of fine rums DO keep their word also regarding the age of their bottled produce, and regard this a matter of professional pride. But not all of them, and it should not be taken for granted.

A different issue is then if a solid age statement provides any more guarantee of quality than simply stating the age of the rum. Older is not always necessarily better.

Mika Jansson

mika.jansson@nokia.com

[frog4mee]

not true for bacardi. Their reserve name is for their worst rum. I bought a bottle just to see what it tasted like and will never touch the stuff again.

Edited April 14, 2003 by frog4mee (log)