Rum Review: Atlantico Private Cask Rum

Is Ron Zacapa a fad? Is Zaya, Angostura 1919 or Pyrat XO? How bout Diplomatico? There's a modern marketing trend afoot and it's toward rum as liqueur. Sweet and easy to sell, er, drink. Here's to Richard Seale, may he never see this section!
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How do you rate Atlantico Rum (five is best)?

5
0
No votes
4
1
33%
3
1
33%
2
0
No votes
1
1
33%
 
Total votes: 3

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Capn Jimbo
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Rum Review: Atlantico Private Cask Rum

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Atlantico Private Cask Rum: "Hot Vanilla Caramel Liqueur"

Oh no Mr. Bill! Not another Twiggie rum! Tell me it ain't so, Atlantico...

It's so.

Quite some time ago I found the Gruesome Twosome - the Rum Queen and the main Burr Brother - both pushing Atlantico as the next best thing. A Burr blurb "Delicious. Unlike anything else on the market..." is actually featured on a bottle hanger. These alone shoulda tipped me off, but like The Compleat Idiot I am, I completely ignored this waving red flag. Over the next months I began to run across this "unlike anything else on the market" rum at various booze outlets, but at $35 it just wasn't in the cards.

After many moons I wandered into my favorite gay market purveyor, a store that has the best selection and prices in town (try Flor de Cana 18 at $33!) and noted that Atlantico had been reduced to $29.

I bit. I had hopes.

The packaging was like marketing shiny beads to the natives - a cardboard, faux leatherbound box - and promoted not only Christopher Columbus and his discovery of "...a beautiful island paradise", but also presented the history of the Dominican Republic from the perspective of rum "being at the heart of our culture...". As if the entire history of the region had led, inexorably and inevitably to Atlantico Rum.

What's that little flag waving?

The other side of the faux leather box talked about their 3rd generation master blender, and their completely unique process for the "creation" of Atlantico. This must have happened on the eighth day, I guess. They select aged rums, blend em, take the "additional step" of "aging the blend yet again (this is the "Private Cask" part).

Wait, wait - there's more!

From the "private casks" they claim that the rum goes into an undefined "solera method" set of barrels - apparently public casks this time, lol - for, are you sitting down - "15 to 25 years". As they put it "...this third aging guarantees a consistently balanced rum".

Do you honestly believe all this? Really? Just on its face this would mean that this rum was conceived, planned and executed over 25 (or maybe 15) years ago to finally appear - dramatically and professionally packaged. But as always, I digress. The reviews:

Sue Sea:
It's no secret that I simply love a great presentation. The box aside, Atlantico Rum comes in a tall square bottle with short rounded shoulders, a classy wooden handled cork and a nifty little bottle hanger. The impression is old world and masculine, yet artsy. The bottle features a tall rectangular antiqued label, and their molded in double anchor. The top features an expensive looking (and unnecessary) paper seal.

A presentation like this really does whet my interest.

Atlantico Rum has a lovely and inviting aroma. It presented first as leather over a background of brown sugar, caramel and vanilla. The latter came forward - way forward - with airing. The early palate presented with great smoothness and honeylike sweetness, followed by a growing clove heat. The end palate was slightly astringent, with transitory molasses and leather. The finish too is clove hot and medium long. Atlantico leaves a not entirely pleasant sherry aftertaste and has a bit of what I call an exhale (a secondary experience that is actually pretty rare).

All in all, Atlantico is not particularly complex, surprising for an allegedly solera method rum of 15 plus years. It is consistent, but this rum is really a bit hollow (good entry and exit only). It struck me as heavy, thick bodied and liqueur-like and left a sweet residue on my lips.

What does this mean? Jim feels very strongly that Atlantico is anything but a pure rum and I am inclined to agree. With airing the vanilla becomes so dominant that it is almost offensive, at least from the viewpoint of the pure rum it purports to be. I feel this rum is really more a dessert liqueur than a sipper. As such I feel that $35 is way too much to pay.

To be fair I want to give Atlantico the benefit of the doubt, and taste it another time, another day, and will report my experience here.
Me:

Sue Sea and I had exactly the first impression - a smooth leather over the aforestated background. I picked up vanilla early - an impression that grew and grew and, uh grew. Whew! Rum Atlantico is crystal clear, gemstone brilliant. Yet it lacks the green edge that any rum that claims to be 15-20 years of age ought to demonstrate. It has those slooooow, scary legs that always cause me to pause.

The longer this rum spent in the glass, and the more pours we tried the more it became obvious to me that Atlantico Rum is a secretly altered and flavored rum. Vanilla - actually vanillan - from the oak is hard to come by and is never, never overpowering. Example: Mount Gay Extra Old - it's there, it's vanilla, but it's subtle and sophisticated. If someone told me he'd poured an entire bottle of artificial vanilla extract into my Atlantico for a joke, I'd believe it.

The scary slow legs, and the lick-your-lips sweet residue imply some added sugar. The lack of a green edge is more than curious. And I know enough about solera that the claim of 15-20 years is, well, impossible. Soleras of more than three or four levels are financially impractical - and these quickly top out at an average age of about 8 years. Not 15 or 20, which is simply ridiculous.

Now to be as fair as Sue Sea, I will relent to say this is not a bad flavored dessert rum liqueur - indeed it is rather pleasant - but to present this as a blended, aged rum of exceptional age offends me.

Even at $29.95 I'd not be inclined to buy another bottle. At $19.95 this would be a winner, assuming of course that Atlantico would come clean and label it honestly.

Rating (10 is best): 6.


*******

Note: I discussed the mystery of Atlantico's "unique" aging system in this article on "solera aging". If you are serious about rum you've gotta read it. I'm dead serious... Link to Atlantico and Solera Aging
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
JaRiMi
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Ron Atlantico

Post by JaRiMi »

I recently tasted this rum from a sample I had received from "Count Silvio" (thanks for the sample!!).

Atlantico Private Cask

Colour: Red gold, strange orange shade. Hmmm?

Nose: Quite strange for a rum; Strong artificial essences, in terms of some citrus, lemon peel, something else...ginger? All mixed in, in a very artificial way. A touch of tequila? This is not rum as we know it. Sweet.

Palate: Sweet and sugary, artificial essences all over...syrupy, with the same tequila and citrus there, pronouncedly artificial. Thin, no wood or tannins whatsoever. Phew!

Finish:
Unnecessarily long and syrupy, with all those essences doing a merengue in my mouth. Did I just have a very poorly made cocktail? Ice might have helped, at least it numbs the palate...

Comments:
Who buys this, and for what purpose? Rum it isn't. The age MUST be very young, as there isn't even a hint of wood or tannins anywhere. Lemon cordial, cheap rum and some other artificial spicings. The US selling price alone should be a hint that this is nowhere near 15 - 25yo rums - probably more like 2 - 5 yo. The spirit itself probably had very little flavour so the makers decided to hide this fact from us. Yuck, yuck, yuck. This is hopefully the last time I sip this rum.
Mike.357
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Location: Knoxville Tennessee

Post by Mike.357 »

I actually picked up a bottle of Atlantico. I stopped in a liquor store in Smyra Ga Monday. Purposely looked for a rum I had not seen available in Knoxville. Atlantico caught my eye. The color of the rum looked good, the age and blend seemed a buying point.

I like it. I like it a lot. I enjoy the heavier body and the inner warmth when swallowed. I defer to a previous post calling it sherry. Me likey no matter what it is called.

I am not going to reach for proper descriptors. I do taste the tropics in it, I get some banana out of it maybe. I get the caramel and vanilla. Still can't wrap my head around leather.

I gave it four stars and feel it worthy of every one. I probably won't buy it again but that is because it is not on the shelf where i work. I paid 35 nearabouts for it.
Pain or damage don't end the world. or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back. -Al Swearengen (Deadwood)
JaRiMi
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Post by JaRiMi »

Mike.357 wrote: I gave it four stars and feel it worthy of every one. I probably won't buy it again but that is because it is not on the shelf where i work. I paid 35 nearabouts for it.
Each to their own - but this proves that the marketing guys ARE RIGHT - any dark spirit, with artificial sweeteners and flavourings - will do for a "quality rum". Easy money to be made, Diageo!!! :-)




*******
Capn's Log: Absolutely! It is stunning the power of Devil Diageo, when they can strongarm liquor stores, distributors and the US Congress. Give us billions for the next 60 years - true! - so we can get paid to make high profit, altered sweet and cloying rum-like spirit to serve to the monkeys and all is well in la-la land. It's not enough to make obscene profits - the American public has to add billions. I won't name names, but a very well placed spirits insider - who supports the petition - says that many of his cohorts are scared to death of Diageo, and fear to publicly speak out.

This is exactly what The Rum Project is all about: truth and a reality check. Those who don't believe this are advised to read the "...it's all good" Shillery.
sleepy
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Location: Atlanta and points south

Post by sleepy »

Several months ago, a distributor rep stopped by my local watering hole trying to vend this swill. The owners, knowing my fondness for rum, invited me over for a taste. My response was closer to JaRiMi's - phoney liqueur labelled as rum. No sales that day!

Now, if they labelled them as liqueurs rather than rum, some are OK - on occasion, I like Zaya after a meal - it's just no more rum than Drambuie is malt whiskey!
JaRiMi
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Post by JaRiMi »

sleepy wrote:Several months ago, a distributor rep stopped by my local watering hole trying to vend this swill. The owners, knowing my fondness for rum, invited me over for a taste. My response was closer to JaRiMi's - phoney liqueur labelled as rum. No sales that day!

Now, if they labelled them as liqueurs rather than rum, some are OK - on occasion, I like Zaya after a meal - it's just no more rum than Drambuie is malt whiskey!
Well said. Honesty goes a long way, and labeling the product as a spiced rum, or a liqueur would be honest.

It is also astoundingly blatant of producers to come up with a fancy story regarding their product, and then also claim its age is "very old" - while they sell the stuff for 20 bucks a bottle. Laws of economics simply does not allow this - a truly well-aged rum, with an expensive cask like oloroso, does not sell for 20 bucks. As consumers, we're not that stupid to buy that story.
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