welcome to the fifty best spirits of 2005

 

              The Fifty Best   Presents

 

Wine Enthusiast Magazine
50 Best Spirits of 2005

Page 4  - RUM & TEQUILA

La Favorite
Rhum Agricole Vieux
(Martinique; Caribbean Spirits, Inc., Chicago, IL)
40% abv,  $48.  96100
CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation
The nose offers scents of oaky vanilla, rum cake, holiday fruitcake, black pepper, cigar tobacco and nutmeg. The palate entry is sweet and moderately oily; the midpalate boasts flavors of butter cream, dark chocolate, cream sherry, cola, citrus, and honey. Ends on an opulent sweet caramel-like note. Dark, oak-aged rum at its finest.

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Neisson
Rhum Agricole Blanc
(Martinique; Caribbean Spirits, Inc., Chicago, IL)
50% abv,  $30./Liter  96100
CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation
The opening aroma is marvelously beany and grassy; later, sweetish flavors of dark caramel, chimney soot, and dark, old honey make scrumptious inhaling. The palate entry is honeyed, warm, and cocoa-like; at midpalate the grassy/weedy/cane-like taste balances the honeyed sweetness. Concludes cocoa-like, intense yet smooth, and memorably sweet.

 

10 Cane
Rum
(Trinidad; Moet Hennessy USA, New York, NY)
40% abv,  $35.  96100
CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation
A one-of-a-kind bouquet that includes aromas of cooked brown rice and broccoli, brown sugar, raw cane, brine, soy sauce and vanilla bean. The palate entry tastes of bittersweet sugar cane; at midpalate the taste becomes more sophisticated, silky, honey sweet and lightly spiced. Concludes nicely bittersweet, a bit cocoa-like and beany.

     10 Cane Rum  

Mount Gay Rum     

Mount Gay
Extra Old
Barbados Rum
(Barbados; Remy Amerique, New York, NY)
40% abv,  $30.  96100
CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation
The initial aroma includes scents of treacle, spice and flower garden; further aeration brings out aromas of black pepper, cola nut, dried red fruit, and molasses. The palate entry is long and toffee-like; at midpalate honeyed, apple butter-like, and creamy flavors add zesty spice to the aftertaste.

Rhum Clément
V.S.O.P.
Aged Rum
(Martinique/France; Clement USA, Brooklyn, NY)
40% abv,  $30.  96100
CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation
A muted aroma of brown sugar and milk chocolate with traces of peanut and black pepper. The elegant yet assertive palate entry is firm, peppery, moderately sweet and cane-like; at midpalate the texture turns silky, semisweet and cocoa-like to the taste, and eminently elegant and sophisticated in style. Finishes sweet, honeyed, medium-bodied, svelte and utterly yummy.

      Rhum Clement

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Milagro
Select Barrel Reserve
Reposado 100% Agave
Tequila NOM-1420-CRT
(Mexico; William Grant & Sons, New York, NY)
40% abv,  $70.  96100
CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation
Initial aroma of wax paper and black pepper; aeration stimulates scents of asparagus, broccoli, new leather and herbal butter. The palate entry is spicy and semisweet; the midpalate adds subtle tastes of butter, steamed green vegetables, white rice and light toffee. Finishes satiny smooth and appealingly spicy. A tour de force in balance and harmony.

Tequila Tezon
Reposado 100% Agave
Tequila
(Mexico; Pernod Ricard USA, White Plains, NY)
40% abv,  $65.  9095
SUPERB / Highly Recommended
The initial aroma is spiced and intensely peppery; evidence of dill and olive brine comes to the surface in the later sniffings. The palate entry is smooth, creamy and a touch vanilla-like; the midpalate stage finds tastes of black pepper, roasted agave, new leather and pickling brine. Concludes satiny in texture, slightly smoky and sweet.

 

Scorpion Mezcal     

Scorpion
Mezcal Anejo
5 Years Old
(Mexico; Caballeros, Inc,/MHW, Manhasset, NY)
40% abv,  $180.  9095
SUPERB / Highly Recommended
The first nosings find notes of quinine, burnt match and furniture polish; additional time brings out deeper scents of onion, brine, olives and damp earth. The palate entry is sooty, sweet and close to creamy; at midpalate the taste profile turns zesty and peppery, oaky sweet, charcoal-like and savory. Finishes bittersweet and caramel-like.

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