Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

A friend of mine paid $10 for a bottle of this, in Costa Rica.  It is a faily light rum, although brown in colour, with 38% alcohol (76 proof).

The bottle looks like a 750ml beer bottle, with a red screw top, and labels similar to that pictured on the Matusalem site, but glossier.

The taste is similar to Bacardi 8 to me, although not as complex.

Will post more notes, as I taste more of this rum.  Would I buy it again?  Sure, for $10.

[CjBohl]

Is that Gran Reserva the 15yr blend?? I have a bottle of that.... but it is only 700ml and 40% alc./vol. (80 proof)

$10 though you can not go wrong.......there isn't any bottle of rum here in the UK where I can get 750ml for 10 bucks!! Not even the stuff for mixing!!

I'm going to have to start a tasting notebook (like I do for my cigars). The bottle I have isn't open, I can not remember what it was like the last time I had it and the bottle is to dark to tell the color of this rum.

Hey BPC are you going to Cuba this next week?

cj

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

No, not going, wish I was.

I've seen the 700ml bottles from Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, iIrc.

750 from US, Canada, GB.

[Dan Smith]

Greetings Kendall,

I was wondering what the country of distillation was.  What does it say on the label:

• Produced By:  Matusalem & Co. 1205 W. 37th Ave, Miami FL
  

OR

• Destilado Y Embotellado Por:  Corporation Cuba Ron S.A. La Habana Cuba
  

It sounds like you have the Grand Reserva from Miami (see picture bolow).  It’s a good rum, but a little too smooth and light for my tastes.  It’s lacking a little character for my taste.  Still better than most rums.

Cheers

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Actually, Dan, neither (I think).  Will look again.  But the Label does day FORMERLY (caps mine) of Havana, Cuba

[Dan Smith]

Ahhhhhhh...

That solves the mystery.

If it says Formally from Santiago de Cuba or Cuban Tradition, then it's a dead give away that it's from Miami and not Cuba.

Still a good rum though and a GREAT buy for $10.  That rum sells for between $34 and $47 here in Canada  :wow:

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Dan, I believe it is Costa Rican Rum, will post exact words, in Spanish.

[CjBohl]

The plot thickens

cj

[ELA]

I didn't know there was a Costa Rica connection here. I remember hearing the entire story about this rum years ago. The corporate entity is a Miami based commpany, as has already been said. I am not sure if it is made in Miami though. A few importers/distributors told me it was made somewhere else, but I don't remember.

As far as the rum, maybe it's my palate, but I remember liking it and not liking it on different occasions. Could be anything though -- food, what cigar I was smoking at the time, and of course, the company, LOL. I still have a bottle somewhere. I remember it being light, and perhaps a bit one dimensional.

I thought I remember hearing it had been changed/improved. Was that on an old thread here? I know we had talked about this one before.

Enjoy.

Eric

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Hecho en Costa Rica

If I remember my HS Spanish that means "Made in Costa Rica".

[Dan Smith]

Greetings Eric,

The Matusalem Miami is distilled in Saint-Croix USVI and only bottled in Miami.  I got the above information from Jim Tirell of Matusalem when I inquired about a distillery tour.

Cheers

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Could be what I got is cheap knock off???

[Dan Smith]

I really don't know.  I will send an email to Jim concerning this.  Lets hope that he'll respond.

Dan

[ELA]

Dan -- thank you for the info. That's kind of what I remembered as part of the whole trademark infingement issue. It was a very interesting story, both the Bacardi, Matusalem ide, and some of the cigar stories too. I never did get an good summary of this.

Maybe someone can post a link to a good story on this. Thanks.

Eric

[Dan Smith]

Repost from the Cuban Matusalem Thread

Greetings,

I went to Cuba this summer and brought back a bottle of Matusalem anejo Superior.  After I drank the bottle and I realized that it was in a class of it's own (with a VERY close second Santiago De Cuba).

Since then I went insane trying to find this rum.  I could not.  I contacted Tim Forsythe at Caribbean Week Newspaper and we lead me to the Matusalem Company based in Miami.

After responding to an e-mail I sent to the Matusalem Company concerning the Cuba rum, Jim Tirel (Sales Manager for Matusalem Co.) called me.  We had a long conversation about Matusalem and the Cuban variant of their rum.

It all boils down to Castro and the revolution.  Matusalem was producing their rum in Cuba, business as usual.  Then came the revolution.  They fled Cuba.  The next part is a little sketchy, Jim Tirel did not tell me all of it.  I don't know about the Bahamas part.  Jim told me that they set up in Miami and Castro took aver their plant in Cuba and he then continued to produce rum under the Matusalem banner.  After a ~17 year long legal battle, in 1998, maybe 1999, they finally won back the world rights to their name and product.

They now are distilling their product in St-Croix, US Virgin Islands, and bottling it in Miami USA.  And Castro still produces his version of Matusalem in Cuba.  BUT... if he exports any of it, Matusalem Miami has the right to sieze the shipment (just as Bacardi has done in the past, so says Jim T.).

That's all that I know,

Cheers,

Dan Smith, Montreal, Canada