Bacardi Maestro de Ron

The first time I saw this rum it was being sold duty free in the Caribbean. At that time, the bottle stood out with its own unique bottle design and red wax Bacardi Bat logo front and center on the bottle. Then it was released to the regular market and its presentation was conformed to match the rest of the Bacardi line.
This rum is double aged first for a minimum of one year in used American oak bourbon barrels then blended and aged for another three months before it is coconut charcoal filtered and bottled at 40 abv.

Appearance/Presentation
The crystal clear liquid has obviously had all color or character filtered and stripped from it. Swirling the rum creates a thin line that beads up and evaporates quickly.

Nose
The rum delivers an aroma of sweet vanilla, coconut, hint of lime and candied apple with an interesting mint note at the end.

Palate
On the palate the rum has a strong sugary vanilla sweet entry that differentiates it from Superior and its Facundo counterpart, Neo. The alcohol tingle ignites the tongue mid-palate providing notes of lime, black pepper and light banana that is quickly overwhelmed by charcoal mineral and oak notes that linger in an unpleasantly long mineral and ethyl alcohol finish.

Review
With the title “Gran Reserva Maestro de Ron” my expectation for this rum was a bit higher than what was actually delivered. Created to be a step up from Superior, I am not sure they achieved this goal, as I found the rum was too simple and did not differentiate itself enough from other silver rums in the marketplace.
Designed to be used in cocktails, it is serviceable in this role but be prepared to use strong flavored mixers to subdue the ethyl alcohol notes.

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