Papa's Pilar Single Barrel Select Spanish Sherry Cask Finish Rum

Hemingway Rum Company, the makers of Papa's Pilar dark and blonde rums has introduced a limited-release of a special-edition Sherry Finish in select United States markets. Inspired by Ernest “Papa” Hemingway, the award-winning rums will surely be of interest to offshore anglers, as they are hand-selected from ports-of-call in Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panamá, Barbados, and Florida. A team of master blenders created the special-edition Papa’s Pilar dark with seven hand-selected rums sourced from Florida, Central America, and the Caribbean up to 25 years old, which are both pot-and column-distilled.

After solera double aging in bourbon barrels, port wine casks, and Spanish sherry casks, the bold and complex rum was further aged in Spanish oloroso sherry casks for 30 days, thus creating a unique flavor profile that boasts a smooth complexity. In a quest to get rum back to its roots, the Papa’s Pilar Production team chose to embrace a similar methodology used in Scotch Whiskey, with the goal to allow the rum blend to continue to meld together, while also interacting with the Sherry and French Oak. It is also a method used by Cuban rum makers in their best rums, as they cannot easily source used American Bourbon barrels. The team chose to use French Limousine Oak Sherry casks from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, and only for a short period of time because the grain structure of French Limousine Oak is wider and more open than American Oak Bourbon barrels. First up Papa’s Pilar 24 Dark Rum is another of those slightly sneakily named Solera Blended rums.

This rum, if the emblem on the bottle's neck it to believed is Solera Blended in the USA. By building off the strong base flavors found in our dark rum and allowing additional time for the blended rums to meld together, this special release has developed a slight sweetness combined with a uniquely spicy finish, resulting in smoothness and complexity second to none,” said Ron Call, head of the rum production. “The magic happens in aging - not between the rum and the fresh oak, but between the rum and the broken-down oak from a process that takes many years to develop.

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Slightly dark amber color.

Nose: Nutty, with a rich amontillado character, studded with chocolate, gingerbread, brown sugar, oak, caramel, and cloves. It is quite sweet, with a maple syrup and caramel aroma with a hint of sherry.

Palate: This rum is less rich than expected given the sugary nose, the somewhat oily body redolent of furniture polish and more baking spice, mixed in with walnuts and roasted chestnuts. Brown sugar, oak, caramel, toffee, and maple. Sweet and uniquely complex.

Finish: A slightly gummy, vaguely vegetal note takes hold, a counterbalance to some late-arriving notes of tart citrus, driven by the sherry cask. It is not as impactful as those amontillado notes up front, but it does help soften what is otherwise a quite austere rum that keeps its charms a bit too close to the vest. Unparalleled smoothness.

43% ABV / 86 Proof

750 ML