Rum: More than 100 of the world’s best rums. Dominic Roskrow

drinks outlets, and online. White Knight is the company’s white rum and, as there is a view that quality and niche white rums are becoming increasingly fashionable, White Knight ticks all the right boxes. White Knight is a white Guyanese rum brought down to bottling strength with spring water from the Northumberland hills. It is fruity, easy drinking and has soft toffee notes.

Angostura 1787

      PRODUCER: Angostura Holdings Limited

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Trinidad and Tobago

      VARIETY: Premium dark rum

      ABV: 40.0%

      WEBSITE: www.angosturarum.com

      Different suppliers and producers take vastly different approaches to the marketing of rum, from pirates to parties, and from cheap and cheerful to classy connoisseur. Angostura is in the serious category. It points out that all of its rum comes from just one distillery in Trinidad, in the same way that a single malt whisky derives from one place, it says – only its rum is better. That’s obviously a big claim but taste this and you can see the company has an argument. This was released in the second half of 2016 and is 15 years old. You can taste the oak in the rum, and there are some impressive tannin and spice notes. There are some exotic and dried berry fruits on the palate, too, as well as toffee. A balanced, rounded and excellent quality rum.

Angostura Cask Collection No. 1

      PRODUCER: Angostura Holdings Limited

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Trinidad and Tobago

      VARIETY: Aged rum

      ABV: 40.0%

      WEBSITE: www.angostura.com

      The Cask Collection is a range of limited editions entirely dedicated to rums that are matured in different types of casks. No. 1 Once Used French Oak is bottled at 40.0% and is the first rum that Angostura has matured in French oak casks. It is an exquisite, silky smooth and complex blend – created with a combination of techniques learnt from the Old World and perfected in the New World. Only 15 030 bottles of this rum were released so it may be difficult to find. A range of rums are matured for 10 years and then transferred to French Oak casks for another six years. The resulting rum is smooth and balanced with a soft silky finish.

Antiguo de Solera

      PRODUCER: Santa Teresa

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Estada Aragua, Venezuela

      VARIETY: Dark rum

      ABV: 40.0%

      WEBSITE: www.ronsantateresa.com

      Considered by many to be the world’s best South American Rum, Antiguo de Solera is just that – an aged rum produced through a solera system, where rum is taken away for filling from the bottom of the solera, and new rum is added at the top.

      The distillery is unique. It rehabilitates former gang members when they are released from prison, and gives them the means to work hard to turn their lives around – and it encourages them to play rugby, of all things.

      The rum is extraordinarily complex and rounded, with notes of tobacco smoke, leather, dark chocolate and honey.

      A world-class operation in all respects.

Appleton Estate 21 Year Old

      PRODUCER: Gruppo Campari

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Nassau Valley, Jamaica

      VARIETY: Dark rum

      ABV: 43.0%

      WEBSITE: www.appletonestate.com

      The age on a bottle of spirits can mean various things. In the case of single malt whisky, the age refers to the youngest whisky in the bottle; even one drop of a young whisky and that is its age. But other spirits have looser definitions. Appleton Estate 21 Year Old, though, adamantly follows the single malt route, and contains rums that are at least 21 years old. Most of the rum was matured and the time in the oak gives some delicious tannin spice and oaky notes. But there are some exquisite flavours of vanilla, cocoa and orange. As a result, this is a fabulous sipping rum and doesn’t need mixing. It is described as ‘just brilliant’ by one leading online retailer.

Appleton Rare Blend 12 Year Old

      PRODUCER: Gruppo Campari

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Nassau Valley, Jamaica

      VARIETY: Golden rum

      ABV: 43.0%

      WEBSITE: www.appletonestate.com

      Campari spent much of the second decade of the new millennium building a portfolio of drinks businesses, and earned industry respect by taking a hands-off approach, providing the necessary funds to allow the spirits makers to do what they do best – make great drinks. Appleton, based on an estate in the heart of Jamaica, puts a big emphasis on terroir (the whole environment a drink is produced in, including weather, geography, etc.), arguing that its rums are unique due to the sugarcane that it grows itself, and the limestone spring that supplies its water. Rare Blend 12 Year Old is a blend of different rums from the estate, most of them matured in 180-litre American oak barrels. This is smooth, sweet and not as oaky as you might expect, given the age of the spirits.

Bacardi Carta Blanca

      PRODUCER: Bacardi Brown Forman

      AREA OF ORIGIN: Puerto Rico

      VARIETY: White rum

      ABV: 37.5%

      WEBSITE: www3.bacardi.com

      Familiarity can breed contempt but this rum is a success because of its quality. This is the world famous version of Bacardi, the one seen in tens of thousands of bars, and there are very good reasons for its global success. White rums were considered to be harsh, crude, and unrefined until they were reinvented by the company’s founder, Don Facundo, who introduced charcoal filtration to remove