Hard to find only one release of the year!
This year has been my Clarendon year, with really great new & old releases I found very good!
Of course, the Fine Drams 97 (RX16023) & 95 (RX16024) and the Sponge 97 (RX15606) are in my top of the year too, though their important alcohol rate. In the older releases, the 94 MMW from Plantation/LMDW is just excellent (RX10637)!
The 2 last Plantation + LMDW Jamaican releases from the Live are very high quality (and nice prices), very good rums! RX17315 & RX17313.
In the low price but qualitative rums, I’ve been nicely surprised by the Shakara for 50€ (RX17382), the new Appleton Reserve 15 y.o black river for 60€/65€ (RX9992), which is far better than the others (12yo, 8yo).
There are still lot of 2023 releases that are waiting to be tasted in my cabinet! Maybe some of thems could be in the top 5 of the year. I’m thinking to some agricoles : the Bally 2007 V&B is waiting for another try, but on my first try, I found it very good!
In the crazy prices category, the RX17348 is an impressive agricole, tasted very briefly in the live. But the price is just wtf…
I agree on that. A year without real surprise in the rum world. We can get a bit bored.
I’'ve been nicely surprised by the La Maison Du Whisky Rhum Cambodia (Flag Series) 2018 5yr 56,5% | RX17324 | RumX, waiting to taste it another time and to see more Asian releases with their own style.