I really wanted to give this an impartial review, and I got to taste some Puntacana Club rum in the Dominican Republic, and my thoughts were that it’s a sweet mediocre rum that is way more expensive than its quality calls for. But I only got to try a few, so I bought some sample bottles at a gift shop. It’s, in their words, Rum for Connoisseurs.

I would like to share the description of the Ron Muy Viejo from their website:

A formidable reserve with an attractive dark golden color and mahogany nuances, with a harmonious aroma and notes of oak, toasted caramel and syrup.

Oh, wait. They just copied Ron Viejo. Oops. Let’s get it from the spec sheet, then.

Puntacana Muy Viejo stands as the crown jewel of Caribbean rums. It undergoes an average maturation of 7 years in freshly charred American white oak barrels. The uniqueness of Puntacana Muy Viejo lies in its innovative triple-aging process. By utilizing three distinct barrels with varying levels of toasting (light, medium, and medium-heavy), this rum achieves a harmonious blend of flavors. Each toasting level imparts different characteristics, creating a multifaceted profile that delights the senses.

Now, contrast this with their description of Puntacana Club XOX:

PUNTACANA CLUB XOX 50th ANNIVERSARY
THE JEWEL OF THE OLIVER FAMILY

So are they both jewels? I mean… I guess that makes sense. I also have two “family jewels”.

Story

Did you really think that Ron Muy Viejo, the crown jewel, now entering their premium range of rums, would finally be a bit more than the frankly embarrassing 32% ABV? Think again. I guess Oliver & Oliver wants to disguise the harshness of even their “7 year aged” rum. And they do take every opportunity to assert that it absolutely is aged 7 years.

I’ll reiterate about the packaging trick. Thick glass, rum only in the tiny window, everything else is just air hidden by the box. They even hid the volume and the embarrassing 32% ABV label. Even the weakest rums in the US are a full 25% stronger than this liquid, and while 50mL is not a huge amount, at least it’s enough to get a good sample. Pour it in my NEAT glass, get a good nose, take a sip, and use the rest for one or two half-size cocktails. But 20mL? God forbid I can actually get a decent sample of your severely watered down rum! This is some advanced tourist entrapment! The best scientists at Oliver & Oliver must have put in overtime to come up with this trick!

Also, I don’t want to overlook the fact that the last rum I reviewed, Puntacana Silver Dry, very obviously had artificial flavors added and, I strongly suspect, a heavy addition of glycerin. So that rubicon has been crossed, as I have no doubt that they have zero issues with adulterating every rum they produce in any way they think they can. It’s like learning that your chef spat in your food last time, and now you are brought another dish from him. Would that color how you view the food? So look, I will be comparing the rums today against Brugal Añejo, but, to make it more fair, I will water it down from 37.5% to 32% ABV. Not that I have to do that to make the test fair, if we’re being real, but I want to give these two the best shot. I am actively trying hard to overcome my bias, knowing that this company puts out slop.

Notes:

Base fermentable: Some retail sites say molasses, but their official site says miel de la caña (sugarcane honey) which is a sugarcane juice syrup. Since they buy bulk rum from Trinidad (definitely from Angostura, which is molasses) and from Panama (highly likely from Varela Hermanos, which is sugarcane juice), as well as from various other countries, it’s probably a blend of both.

Origin: Cask Cartel says that it’s a blend from five countries. My guess is the same as the rest of the Puntacana Club lineup: bulk rum from Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic.

Aging: The claim is that it is aged in a solera style in ex-bourbon barrels, with either the oldest portion 7 years old, or 7 years is the average age. Claims differ.

Please take the above information with a very large grain of salt, as Oliver & Oliver is not known for their transparency in terms of their ingredients, additives, and production, and retail sites and their distributor have wildly different claims about how it’s made and what’s in it. Not a good sign.

Muy Viejo spec sheet (but take this with a grain of salt too)

Review

Smell

It smells sweet, with vanilla, oak, slightly floral notes, and kind of perfumy.

Taste

Notes of vanilla, caramel, and actually the slightest hint of an aged floral taste that I typically associate with cuban rums. I would say that this rum is on par in taste with 32% Brugal Añejo, in terms of vanilla, oak, and floral taste, but burns slightly less. The flavor is not exactly the same, as Brugal has a floral green apple taste that is uniquely Brugal’s, while Muy Viejo noticably has a floral taste that reminds me more of Ron Santiago de Cuba, but, again, don’t mistake this for me saying it’s anywhere near as good as a Cuban rum. It’s still extremely diluted and anemic.

Verdict 4/10

This rum almost has something. If I try hard, I can detect a hint of the aged floral character that makes Cuban rums interesting. It’s faint, barely there, but it’s a step up from Ron Viejo. But we’re setting the bar pretty low to the ground. At 32% ABV, it’s still anemic, and at this sweetness level, it’s still masking whatever nuance might exist underneath. If this were bottled at 40% with no added sugar, it might genuinely compete with Bacardi, potentially even Brugal Añejo. But it’s not— it’s a 32% ABV product claiming “solera aged 7 years” that’s defeated by a watered down 2-5 year old rum. Disappointing. 4/10.