Dictador 12 Year Solera Ultra Premium Reserve Rum

Dictador is Colombian rum you can't buy in Colombia — protective laws keep it out of 98% of the country, so nearly all of it is exported — and the 12 Year is its calling card. Destilería Colombiana in Cartagena de Indias was founded in 1913 by Don Julio Arango y Ferro, whose ancestor, the Dictador of the name, ran a commercial rum trade in the 18th century. The 12 is made from fermented virgin sugarcane honey rather than molasses, distilled partly in copper pot stills and partly in column, and aged in ex-bourbon oak in a solera system — meaning 12 is the age of the oldest rum in the blend, not the youngest — bottled at 40% ABV in the stark black bottle. The Rum Howler scored it 90: rich baking spice, brown-sugar toffee, cinnamon, vanilla, marzipan, charred marshmallow, fresh and dried fruit, and a complex oak profile with a light smokiness, well balanced and very complex. Rum Ratings' drinkers find coffee, dried orange peel, leather, cocoa, and dark chocolate on the nose, then a surprisingly dry, cocoa-and-coffee palate with a woody, faintly smoky finish — recommended as the counterpoint to oversweet rums, with something of a cognac about it. The Lone Caner's hydrometer found no added sugar in the 12, while noting solera rums read sweet by nature. Honest note: the solera label means the age is a ceiling, not a floor. For a Rum Old Fashioned, a coffee cocktail, or neat, it's the cognac-drinker's Colombian.

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