Objective Notes
Extremely Smooth (on the RnD scale of Harsh-Smooth-Very Smooth-Extremely Smooth)

El Dorado 21 year shows a rich red mahogany color, no doubt from prolonged exposure in oak.
As with all of El Dorado’s rums, the 21 year old steps right up to greet your nose with a wealth of complexity, some heat and spicy fruit that tell you to get ready for a Big Rum. Challenge your senses to detect subtle aromas of leather, char, cocoa, coffee, toffee, and toasty peat, followed by anise, vanilla, raisin, orange peel, brown sugar and cranberry. A rich, mineral-like sweet body delivers delicious flavors of raisin, prune, semi-tart apricot, tobacco, rhubarb, coffee, cocoa, pecan shell, and a slight bit of vanilla and caramel, pretty reliably in that order. Multifaceted indeed! El Dorado 21 year old finishes warm, the taste of sweet licorice delivering a long lasting sensation.

El Dorado’s 21 year old rum delivers substantial dry leather and tobacco, less fruit and a drier finish than either or its younger teenage brethren (the 15 and 12 year olds).  The 12 year old’s flavors are far more evocative of fruitcake, slightly more forward and sweeter, especially on the finish.  Relatively speaking, the 15  year old adds licorice and anise flavors to the fruitcake mix, and finishes more dryly.

Anecdotal Notes
I’ve been sipping El Dorado rums for awhile now. I’ve learned they taste far better as you move up the age scale, so I was anxious to try their 21 year old. And what better place than at the Dodgy Dock bar in True Blue, Grenada, waiting for a boat. I figured,

this rums’ been waiting 21 years in oak for me to taste it, I can wait a little longer for my boat to arrive. I discovered the 21 year old is considerably smoother and more integrated than their 15 year old, yet it delivers in spades all of the wonderful complexity that El Dorado rum’s are known for. Note: The price varies widely from one location to another. I’ve found El Dorado 21 year old for around $60 on Antigua and some large discount chains in the US, $77 on St. Vincent, and $80 online, so shop around. But at any price, the quality and flavor of El Dorado’s 21 year old rum will impress you.

With nine widely varying types of stills at work (copper pot, steam-heated wooden, column, etc.), it’s no wonder El Dorado is able to create such a wide variety of unique rums. The exceptional characteristics delivered by their 21 year old rum is the result of blending rums produced in the Enmore wooden Coffey still, the Versailles single wooden pot still and the Albion Savalle still, and aged in oak casks for at least 21 years.  (For an interesting profile of DDL and its many stills, please see Tiare’s Mountain of Crushed Ice website at: EL DORADO RUM – THE LIQUID GOLD.

Taster’s Opinion
Dave - El Dorado rums regularly deliver some of the most complex flavors you’ll find. As your rum tasting palate learns to hone its senses for the subtle flavors of well-aged rum, El Dorado will be even more appreciated. The El Dorado 21 year old belongs in any serious rum collector’s portfolio, if only for those special moments when you are inclined to savor the distiller’s artwork.

Taster's Rating (10 is best): Dave - 9.5 flasks

Most recently reviewed by: Dave in December, 2007 in RnD’s South Tasting Room, USA.

*750ml unless otherwise stated.