Old Rum

What is old rum?

An old rum is a rum that has aged for at least 3 years in barrels. During this ageing, the liquid develops its colour and enriches in tannin, which produces an old rum with woody flavours. These oak barrels can sometimes have contained other alcohols such as whisky or cognac, which gives the rum a particular taste.

This type of rum has an alcohol content between 40% and 75%.
The culmination of the passage undergrowth is obtained by ageing for rums that have remained for more than 3 years in oak barrels of less than 650 litres.

Within this category of old rums, which can be 3 to more than 15 years, a whole range is possible : this latter is defined not only by the number of years but especially by the orientations taken at the setting in barrels by the oenologist and the cellar master. The main parameters are, among others, the choice of pouring rum, the capacity of the barrels, the age of the barrels, the degree of filling and the topping operations (emptying and refilling) ...

There are several age statements to differentiate rums:
- The VO (Very Old) label for agricultural rums aged at least 3 years,
- The VSOP, Réserve Spéciale, Cuvée Spéciale and Très Vieux terms for agricultural rums aged at least 4 years
- The terms Extra Vieux, Grande Reserve, Hors d´Âge, XO (Extra Old), for agricultural rums aged at least 6 years.

An old rum can also belong to the category of amber or agricultural rums. However, an aged rum cannot be both a white rum because the latter has not experienced ageing.

Among our large rum cellar, we invite you to (re) discover the emblematic distilleries of Martinique such as Saint James and Trois Rivières, of Venezuela with Diplomatico or even of Barbados with Mount Gay.