Funny! I’m thinkting that way for abaut 4 month now und planed to start that topic in the christmas meeting and I’ll gladly be the antagonist then 
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Any more input on best value-for-money Rums?
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Best Value for Money Spirits were all Armagnac 
Im Rum I haven’t found those cheap exceptions Like the IdR Long Pond of 2021 or the TRC Fiji of 2020.
Perhaps the Maison du Rhum Trinidad. It’s better than the praised Plantation and even cheaper.
I haven’ tried the Bellamy’s 2012 Mdr,yet. But perhaps I change this, this very evening.
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Talking Value for Money the CDI Grays / Mauritius for perola where absolute bangers IMO … both at under 80 euro and at or over a 85 score. That’s nice i think
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Yes, really great stuff!
But in general this year wasn’t the best for value-for-money rums…
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I think that’s a major story for 2022…but would be worth discussing for the rum business. For example what Hampden is currently doing is turning me off. The Rare Casks Series will be 450€-550€…that’s ridiculous for a distillery that’s still in production. I truly believe we should emphasize the reasonably priced rums and recommend these but also discuss the downside of this development
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Pricingwise Long Pond is not better, perhaps even worse. The first ITP release was a big failure: 200€,45%, 15Year. nobody buys such a Rum.
At the GRF haromex had a new release with them. I’m not sure about the Specs, I believe it was a VRW. It was even more expensive, far more expensive.
Edit. but I see, that your remark was rather pointed on the general trend not on the Hampden vs. Long Pond topic.
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In the value for money section, I agree with @lukasdrinkinghabits on the Maison du Rhum Trinidad. The 2 year old PM from The Nectar of the Daily Drams also falls in that category for me. Last but not least: the 2020 Hampden <>H from Daily Drams (it cost €47 in Luxemburg at the time, so it’s hard not to mention it).
In the core range category (at least I think it’s a core range bottle): I turned out to be a big fan of the J.M. epices créoles that I brought with me this week. Don’t know when it was released for the first time. I think the bottle is almost empty 
Top rums that come to mind at this moment:
- Golden age of piracy 1983 LP
- TasTToe 1983 HD/LP
- TasTToe 1998 Caroni
- Golden age of piracy 1994 NYE
- Nobilis 2001 SWR
- Nobilis Clarendon
- 1993 C<>H bottled for Broekmans (TWJ)
- 1990 and 1993 C<>H Salon du Rhum
- 1999 Plantation Long Pond Salon du Rhum
- Nobilis 1989 Uitvlugt
- The Whsky Jury 2001 Fiji
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Dram Mor and Sample X deserve a shoutout as they really do their best to bottle great value for money rums!
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Any “rum New Year’s resolutions” for 2023?
I think I’ll dive deeper into the world of agricoles as the style is growing on me.
I want to explore more from Long Pond.
Buy more rums for my drinking cabinet from bottlers like Dram Mor, Sample X, The Duchess,…
Maybe organize a couple more bottle splits from some top bottles that are relatively easy for me to get a hold of over here.
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Get that friggin GH22 for retail.
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So, here is my list:
- Greenhart: REV 1994, RX12425
- Swell de Spirits: Private Garden No.1 Clos de Spiritueux, RX13297
- Rumclub: Enmore REV, RX11613
- TRC: Hampden DOK, RX13770
- Velier: STCE 2010, RX13414
- RomdeLuxe: Hampden HGML, RX13155
- Nobilis: St. Lucia, RX12426
- Rumclub: Clarendon EMB, RX12779
- sowie diverse NY 1994, fast alle auf gleichem Niveau
(Einige Releases aus 2022 konnte ich allerdings noch nicht verkosten, so dass diese Liste noch nicht endgültig ist)
PLV fand ich den Clairin vom 11. GRF, sowie den Rum Depaz vom Rumclub passend.
Die größte Enttäuschung war für mich der SBS Caroni “The Beast” #3 (für mich kaum zu trinken)
Das Verkostungshighlight in 2022 war für mich der “Caroni 39th The Last”!
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Hi all,
this is more of a reflexion of the rum year 2022 from my perspective.
2022 I focused on tasting agricoles mainly. Reasons were to cope with the high output of high quality bottlings and the high rate of bottle splits on RumX (Many thanks to all of you! 
). In order just to reduce complexity and to prevent sample jam I tried to ignore most of the promising Demeraras etc. This leads to an one-dimensional picture from my side.
Highlights
_ Swell de Spirits Private Garden Clos de Spiritueux, RX13297.
_ Depaz Rum Club Private Selection Selection 2010, RX13230.
_ Steffen Mayer’s Caroni bible. As prices rise, quality decreases it seems to be a great final chapter to complete the story.
_ Hampden. Even if the taste profile is not to my liking I have to admitt that this destillery offers interesting rum for the newby as well as exciting bottlings for the hardcore nerd. This development occured in an impressive period of 4 years.
Lowlights
_ Neisson 15 ans 2005. I expected a fantastic rum, not less. At the end it was very good, but too woody.
_ Appleton and Foursquare. Ladies and Gentlemen, look what Hampden is doing.
The year ended in a great dram of Demerara 1968 and a bottle of Bumbu I got from my father in law.
I wish you a Happy New Year, see what’s coming!!
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update: the Greenheart 94 REV is outstanding 
and without any doubt among my Top 5. As for the RC HQNB, I was a bit disappointed that it is somewhat lacking the Guyana part, thus not being a real Navy blend for me. Having said this, it is an exquisite blend…
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Den VRW Long Pond gibt es jetzt hier. Preislich ein Abenteuer.
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Na hossa. Alle Tassen im Schrank haben die aber nicht mehr.
Ist doch das nächste Ding, das bei den Händlern verstauben wird. Sollten sich mal jemanden mit Ahnung zulegen.
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LMDW & V in marketing meeting:
- Well guys, we still have plenty of people paying crazy amounts of money at auction for hampden, what do we do with the new ones?
- Easy, we put them even more expensive!
- But it won’t sell?
- Yes, of course they will! Just make 80 of them and sell them in small steps with a good marketing and they will sell easily!
Monymusk rums in a meeting:
- Did you see how lmdw sold its hampden in a few moments?
- Yeah, we can do even better! Put 150€ more on the bottle!
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Yep. My thoughts exactly. It took some time and well-known figures like Luca to establish Hampden as the premium sought after brand it is these days. I mean they can sell 12 yo rum for 600€, but Long Pond with these 2 silly OBs?!
They should hire some rum nerd to explain them the current market situation.
Free advice: make it a series, always single cask (“limited”/who would waste effort and money on a blend, when you can just bottle a random cask and call it the next big thing and blenders are overrated professionals anyway), and put some birds, fish, or random animals on it, profit, kkthxbye. Maybe use some other bottles aswell. Too clumsy for my liking. Infamous black bottle anyone?!
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But it’s aged in oak!!!1eleven … that means it must be special!!!
To be honest, that’s the only thing I like about that release: it’s not imitating the other crap but trying to build it’s own identity. However, with that pricing I think it’s DOA.
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Yep, it was sarcasm of course. I am with you there. However nowadays a series with single casks is the way to go.
I would really like to see more original bottlings, which consist of a small batch or a even wider range of casks. But then again, you have several people thinking a multi barrel release (“blend”) is inferior to the 9765th release of a single cask of a particular vintage. The Long Pond pricing kills any point made though 
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