Angel's Share Title
Over the past ten years, Bacardi has released several aged expressions, and when they began releasing special barrel aged finishes of their eight year old rum I was intrigued. For years the eight year old expression was my go-to rum of the portfolio since I found it gave the best bang for my buck and could be used for a large variety of cocktails. Over the past few years, the company has produced Bacardi Ocho limited editions and barrel finished versions of the product that have been polarizing in the rum community. This 2023 limited edition uses the rums aged in used Bourbon casks for eight to twelve years and then finished for an unspecified amount of time in Vino de Naranja wine casks. This wine is produced in the Andalucia region of Spain, where they macerate Seville orange peels in white wine to create their product. The rum is blended to 45% ABV.
Appearance
The rum is packaged in the custom short necked 750 ml bottle design that Bacardi uses for its aged expressions. The bat logoed wooden cap holds a plastic cork, which secures tightly to the bottle. The labels on the bottle are orange, with the script providing a minimum amount of information about the rum. The liquid has a dark amber color in the bottle and glass. Swirling the rum in the tasting glass created a thin line that quickly thickened into a medium line that released a single wave of fast moving legs down the side of the glass before evaporating, only leaving a few pebbles behind.
Aroma
I poured the rum into the glass and got a strong hit of caramel and oak spice notes. After the liquid rested for several minutes, I found aromas of peach cobbler, orange peel marmalade, and woody oak notes in the profile.
Palate
The initial sip of the rum reveals a flavor clash between the brown sugar molasses notes and the bitter orange notes. Additional sips amplify the sweetness of the orange notes hitting the medicinal Delsym orange syrup range with a bit of vanilla sweetness in the mix. Roasted nut and smoky wood notes form the foundation while the alcohol burns around the edges of the tongue. The rum has an incredibly fast fade that leaves behind a bittersweet citrus finish.
Review
The marketing material for this product noted that the flavor profile of this rum was like what one would find in an Old Fashioned Cocktail. During the evaluation process I tasted that, but at the same time I found it very “one-trick pony” and limited in how it could be used in cocktails. It did not help that the more I sipped it, the more developed the impression of medicinal orange sweetness entered my mind and just would not leave. Which led me to enjoying the aroma of the rum more than the actual flavor of it. Overall, while I usually enjoy evaluating these limited edition products, at some point, just because a company can create a product working with a particular cask finish does not necessarily mean they should. I remember both the Bacardi Ocho Sherry and Rye cask finishes leaving a positive impression, and this one just did not measure up in comparison. The whiplash bittersweet orange flavor profile has limited applications and is not that enjoyable as a sipper. I recommend anyone curious about this rum find an opportunity to try it before they purchase it blindly off the shelf.
