Ron Cihuatán Solera 12 Reserva Especial

Ron Cihuatán Solera 12 Reserva Especial is the second rum to be released in the United States. The rum is produced by Licorera Cihuatán, a subsidiary of Ingenio La Cabaña of El Salvador. Ingenio La Cabaña is a 100 year old sugar cane mill that provides the high-test molasses that are fermented for the Cihuatán rum line.
Licorera Cihuatán distillery was established in 2004 and began distilling and aging their rums. After fermentation the rum is aged in used American oak bourbon barrels using the Solera method. The rum is then blended and bottled at 40 abv. 
 
Appearance/Presentation
Cihuatán Solera 12 dark mahogany rum with amber highlights in the bottle and lightens slightly when poured in the glass.
Agitating the liquid creates a thin ring around the glass that quickly thickens spinning off equally thick legs. The liquid evaporates quickly until all that remains in a ring of beads around the glass.

Nose
The aroma of the rum shares notes of vanilla, cherry, caramel, and smoky oak

Palate
Sipping the rum enters the palate with a rush of smoky vanilla, followed by caramel, dark chocolate, cherry, with a bite of oak tannins and mineral notes. As the rum begins to fade sweetness of the flavor profile is a little combative with the oak notes, eventually the sweetness wins out lingering in a long dry finish.

Review
This twelve year solera blended rum is interesting with the flavor profile it delivers. Comparing it to its eight year old counterpart I discovered several similarities but also the differences were easy to taste.
In this case you can tell that the oak notes are starting to take over and will be curious how the master blender will tame and balance this in older versions of the rum.

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