Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva

What is rum?  Ostensibly, it is a spirit distilled from sugarcane by-products, such as molasses.  But what is the spirit of rum?  Is it that of Hemingway, sitting on a beach, guzzling Cuba Libre after Cuba Libre, staring down the barrel of a shotgun, never knowing years later he would finally pull the trigger in the blasted lands of Idaho?  Perhaps the spirit of rum lives in the urban hipster, sipping a mojito and trying to forget how to smile.  Maybe it’s all of those things.  Maybe it’s none.  I do know this however:  rum has suffered a bad rap through the years.  It is viewed as a party spirit, more built for mixing than for sipping and enjoying.  This perception has started to recede in recent times, with fine rums finally being seen in bars and on shelves in stores.  Today we discuss quite possibly my favorite rum, Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva.

In the early 1870’s a pair of brothers set sail from Spain to Cuba to establish a rum distillery.  Utilizing a closely guarded recipe in combination with the Solera system of blending, Benjamin and Eduardo Camp partnered with Evaristo Álvarez to create the Matusalem brand in 1872.  They derived the name from the Spanish proverb ” Esto es mas viejo que Matusalem”, which translates to “It’s older than Methuselah.”

Over the next nintey years, the Matusalem brand grew as Cuban rum gained popularity throughout the world.  However, in the early 1960’s, after the family was forced to flee Cuba, the brand began to fragment and stagnate. It wasn’t until the mid 90’s, after a furious legal battle, that the current head of the family, Dr. Claudio Álvarez Salazar, was able to begin re-establishing Matusalem as both a quality spirit and worldwide brand.  Today, from the Dominican, using the old Cuban recipe, they are once again putting out fantastic rum.

After all that rambling, I will talk about the Matusalem 15 year Gran Reserva.

Matusalem 15 is aged in French oak casks and blended using the Spanish Solera system.  It pours a lovely honey color, with notes of molasses, vanilla and caramel in the nose.  The taste is incredibly mellow, bringing more of the vanilla and caramel to the table, with nearly no burn on the backend.  A perfect sipping rum, Matusalem also makes the best Dark & Stormy you will ever taste.  This is one of the best examples of a high end rum I have ever encountered, easily being in the head of the pack of the sipping rum world. As rum continues to garner respect in the spirits community, Matusalem will almost certainly be at the forefront of the movement.

-Out.

Tags: cuba, reviews, rum, solera, the dominican
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