Angel's Share Title
The Ron Medellin line is produced at the Fábrica de Licores y Alcoholes de Antioquia (FLA) distillery, aka the alcohol factory, in Colombia. The company is a state-owned operation that makes their rum from sugarcane and ages their rums in used bourbon barrels and blends them to 40% ABV. Besides their rum, the company also produces: aguardiente, brandy, creams, gin, vodka, and low-proof ready-to-drink (RTD) products. The company also produces alcohol-based products for medicinal and food production use.
Appearance
The rum is packaged in a colorful box that holds the 750 ml bottle. Big on art, but slim on details, the box certainly stood out on the shelves. The clear glass custom-designed bottle has a plastic cap and a long neck wrap, both featuring the Ron Medellin logo. The liquid has a dark amber color in the bottle and glass. Swirling the rum creates a thin band that slowly thickens and releases a few waves of fast-moving legs before evaporating, leaving a ring of big beads around the glass.
Nose
The aroma is a light swirl of caramel, candied fruit, toasted cashews, and mocha.
Palate
The first sip of the rum delivers a chaotic swirl of vanilla, oak tannins, leather, candied fruit, mocha latte, and a medicinal astringency. After letting the rum rest for a few minutes, I discovered the chaos had settled a bit and that the wood tannins provided a roasted cashew note balanced by overripe cantaloupe. A cherry-almond astringency kicks in hard and lingers in a long, woody finish.
Review
While shopping in a local store, I found the Ron Medellin line featured on one of the shelves as a new arrival. I had certainly heard of the brand, but I was not sure if I had ever had it. When I researched the product, I discovered information about the distillery and thought it would be interesting to explore their 8-year-old product. During the evaluation process, I found the aroma to be simple and uncomplicated and a tad odd. The flavor profile is not balanced, and the wood notes are literally hitting all over the place. However, the most challenging part of the flavor profile for me is the overripe cantaloupe and cherry-almond medicinal astringency. These flavor components ruined the sipping experience and were not something I enjoyed. The aftertaste lingered on the palate and made me not want to experiment with it in a cocktail for recommendation purposes. If you believe the flavor notes would be something you would enjoy, by all means pick it up to explore. However, this was not an experience I enjoyed and really do not care to repeat.
