Vinepair: The 30 Best Rum Brands (2023)

Despite its eternal status as the “next big thing” in drinks, rum sales still lag behind multiple other spirits in the U.S., including whiskey, vodka, tequila, and Cognac. Still, there are signs that perceptions of rum are definitively shifting.

Of the almost $2.5 billion U.S. drinkers spent on rum in 2021 — the most recent data available — $229 million went toward “super premium” bottles, the most expensive price segment. Though still a fraction of total sales, this figure is more than 10 times greater than the amount spent on top- shelf rum 15 years ago, proving that folks aren’t only reaching for rum to mix Mojitos and Piña Coladas.

Impressive though that growth is, numbers and spreadsheets do little to capture the depth of the category. With rum brands operating in multiple continents, using two starkly different base ingredients — molasses and fresh cane juice — the main consideration when buying rum is not how much to spend but how you’re looking to enjoy the spirit. The category’s vast range of styles and ever-improving quality ensures that, whether it’s cocktail hour or time for a nightcap, there’s a bottle for every occasion and price point.

This list captures every aspect of that impressive landscape, from single-varietal agricole to transcontinentally aged and blended bottlings. Here are 30 of the best rums to buy right now.

Alambique Serrano Single Blend #1

Alambique Serrano Single Blend #1

Another stunning Oaxacan cane rum, this blend combines Cognac-cask-aged column still distillate with French-oak-aged pot still rum. The duo comes together in perfect harmony, serving up a captivating mix of fruit and umami notes on the nose. The palate then takes a pretty abrupt, but no-less enjoyable, turn, heading in a green, vegetal, earthy direction. This bottle provides further proof that Oaxaca is a serious player in the rum landscape.

Clear as a Bell

These elegant (but electric) digestifs are the perfect pick-me-up, nightcap, and grand finale—all in one glass

BY AMIEL STANEK PHOTOGRAPH BY ISA ZAPATA

Once the dessert forks have been surrendered and everyone swears they couldn’t possibly take even one more bite, a final pour of something special on Thanksgiving just feels right. While I can see the merits of trotting out a bottle of bark-bitter amaro or a mellow bourbon that’s seen a few years in oak, these days I take a different tack. When I want to round out a big meal in style, the choice is clear—a clear spirit, that is. I’m talking about things like eau-de-vie, grappa, mezcal, and clairin. Though these liquors are unique in terms of their geographic origin, composition, and production, they share a brazen character, making them ideal meal-enders. Instead of relying on extensive aging in wood to lend complexity, each spirit tastes unabashedly of the raw materials from which they were distilled and the places where they were made. Heirloom apples. Hand-harvested grapes. Pit-roasted agave. Wild-fermented sugarcane. These idiosyncratic products are as lively and expressive as the day they trickled out of the still; with no time spent in barrels to discipline their rougher edges, flavor has nowhere to hide. And at the end of a rich meal, one sharp sip immediately snaps you back to consciousness, like a cold plunge after a sweaty sauna session.

As is the case with all booze, spirits made with care by small, independent producers are going to be more compelling and often boast a price tag to match. But this is the most special of occasions, after all—when else are you going to break out the good stuff?

CYRIL ZANGS – DOUBLE ZÉRO EAU-DE-VIE DE CIDRE

This bright 100-proof apple brandy is a collaboration between culty Normandy cider maker Cyril Zangs and renowned distillery Calvados Roger Groult. It smells and tastes like a brisk fall stroll through an orchard: ripe fruit, a crisp breeze,

LAURENT CAZOTTES – GOUTTE DE REINE CLAUDE DORÉE

Laurent Cazottes’s eaux-de-vie are the stuff of legend, crafted from small parcels of his own lovingly tended trees and vines. To make this style, Cazottes painstakingly dries and hand-pits greengage plums before fermentation, which yields an extraordinarily concentrated elixir.

CLAIRIN VAVAL RUM

Traditional clairin, perhaps Haiti’s most revered spirit, is rum for mezcal nerds. Made from freshly pressed heritage sugarcane varietals and fermented with no added yeasts, each distillation is a unique expression of terroir. This one, from second-generation producer Fritz Vaval, is sunny and herbaceous, each sip gracefully ping-ponging between delicate flowers and salty funk.

The World Cup of Luxury Spirits: Best Booze of 2022

It’s a global matchup for the titles in best new whiskey, gin, rum, nonalcoholic spirit, digestif and more.

By Brad Japhe
December 16, 2022 at 7:00 AM EST

The World Cup is nearing its end—as is 2022. In service of such, we’re taking a moment to memorialize the best booze of the year. What does liquor have in common with soccer, you may ask? Not a whole lot if you’re watching it live in Qatar. But under usual circumstances, well-crafted spirit, just like the Beautiful Game, is a truly global phenomenon. And just as it’s been a particularly big year for soccer, it’s been for spirits, too, with a plethora of new releases kicking around bottle shops as of late. Over the past 12 months, I sipped my way through more than 150 expressions hailing from roughly 40 different countries. For those keeping score, that’s eight more entries than the total number of national teams qualifying for the World Cup.

For fans of high-end whiskeys, rums, vodkas, gins and more, there’s almost too much to cheer; according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the US, luxury brands increased by 23% in Q2 over that same quarter of 2021. All this is to say, the field is increasingly crowded. Upon careful deliberation and review, I’ve managed to whittle it down to one-on-one matchups for every primary category of spirit, including some zero-proof entrants. But in each draw, it’s up to you to decide which side walks away with the trophy. Let’s get the ball rolling....

Group Gin: Procera Green Dot versus Three Cuts Distiller’s Release Bold Exotic.

Best Gin of 2022

Kenya versus Australia

Procera Green Dot ginWhereas most gins on the market today are made using dried juniper, this Nairobi-based distillery relies on fresh

berries from the native Juniperus procera. Its 94-proof Green Dot ($120) incorporates all parts of the treeincluding the foliage and bark. The resulting liquid offers a pine-forward nose, typical to the category, but itwarms the mouth with earthiness and a tickle of umami on the finish. It exists as that rarest of breeds: a sippinggin. Presented in a mouth-blown decanter of recycled glass, this gin exudes uniqueness inside and out.

Group Rum: Papalin Jamaica 7 Years Old versus Andrés Brugal.

Best Rum of 2022

Jamaica versus Dominican Republic

Papalin Jamaica 7 Years Old rumThis assertive banana-bomb from esteemed independent bottler Velier marks a melodious merger of twolegendary producers from opposite ends of the Caribbean island. High-ester rum from Hampden and Worthy

Park were pot-distilled and matured in their respective distilleries and warehouses before being combined into awhole greater than the sum of its parts, at about $60 a bottle. Ripened tropical fruit is on full display, and yet athoughtful balance to the blend precludes the finish from overplaying its funk.

Group Brandy: Pierre Frapin Cuvée Rabelais versus Suyo No. 1.

Best Brandy of 2022

France versus Peru

Pierre Frapin Cuvée Rabelais cognacThe Frapin family has been crafting cognac in the Charente Valley since the 13th century. Today their estateconsists of 600 acres worth of vines in the grande Champagne cru. Eau-de-vie distilled from this region is

especially well-suited for lengthy aging, as this collectible $13,000 release convincingly demonstrates. It containsliquids that are 100 years old, and yet the XO exerts a spry vitality, pirouetting across the tongue with brightcandied orange and stewed apricot. The mahogany liquid decants gracefully from a gold-necked vessel, craftedby the oldest glass manufacturer in France, Cristallerie Saint-Louis.

The 9 Best New Rums to Drink Right Now

Spirits worth sipping.

Distilled from cane juice rather than molasses, rhum agricole is a different beast from standard rum, with a distinctly grassy, vegetal flavor profile. Cane-based rum can be produced anywhere, but the best-known expressions come from the French Caribbean. Pere Labat is from Guadeloupe’s Distillerie Poisson, the oldest distillery on the island of Marie-Galante. The un-aged rum, distilled to the high-octane “local proof” at which the natives like to drink it, is powerfully vegetal on the nose but much less so on the palate, where it displays notes of vanilla and mint in addition to the classic agricole grassiness. It’s surprisingly easy to drink neat or on the rocks and makes for a great change of pace in a daiquiri.