Kirk and Sweeney 12-Year

From the moment you pick it up you know this is gonna be a great rum experience. The heavy bottle fits perfectly in your hand as you pour. Crystaline golden honey cascades into your glass. The first to last sip is a balanced, blissful. Drier than many contemporary rums, with lots of oak and earth. It was preferred in a taste test with friends against the 25 yr El Dorado... Total opposites of course, but for 1/8th the price, I plan to get more K&S next time I find it.

Received this gem just the other day from a friend for my birthday. I tasted a bit of it and must say it was better after sitting and breathing a bit. Taste of Vanilla and bit smoky oak upon a smooth delivery with no annoying burn... Quite impressed with this Dominican Rum, a nice 12 year old... The pic is the first sipper on my kitchen counter top...

I've been drinking Captain Morgan private stock for years, and I never really had the desire to try anything else it was smooth and got the job done. Saw this on sale at the local store and figured I would give it a try, and I'm so glad I did. Not as much vanilla as the Captain, but absolutely no bite at all and tastes great on the rocks. The only bad thing to come out of this discovery is now I want to keep trying new more expensive rums to see if I can tell the difference.

Was looking forward to trying this highly estimed bottle, but to me it's kind of a let down. It'smedium priced in Denmark, but bested by a lot of simerly priced bottles. It offers a bit of vanilla, dark chocolate and dark berries, but is dominated by somewhat bitter oaky notes. This is normally not a put down for me, but the balance just seem's off here. Could be that I need to try it again.

Am I drinking the same rum that everyone else is rating here? Virtually no sweetness, just a spiciness and too much bitterness which I assume is the charred oak. The finish is short and bitter. Luckily I caught this on sale for cheap. Hey, I really wanted to like this but it is what it is.

Again...suckered into buying this by the rave reviews on this website...Starting to wonder....

It's okay.
Smell: spice and burnt tropical fruit
Taste: spice and burnt tropical fruit with a war of flavors going on in the vanilla, allspice, caramel areas

Factoring for price and 12-year aging, a 5/10 is where this one goes easily. This is a rum with an identity crisis.

I purchased this for only $33.99 (K&L Wines 2015), so based on the price my expectations weren't that high. But this rum greatly exceeded my expectations!

It tastes like an agricole, albeit an exceptional one, and tastes at least as good as the far more expensive Clement XO (imho). It smells and tastes of sugar cane, caramel, vanilla, cookie dough, oak, honey, and molasses.

One of the best rum values in my opinion, this is a must try!

Edit: I've since tried the 18 and 23year Kirk & Sweeney, which are considerably better!

Can't believe this great tasting rum csn be so inexpensive. Now taste for yourself and i think you'll agree.

This rum is about as good as it gets in the mid-upper price zone - at about $35 bucks a bottle - this rum is smooth and flavorful with a lot of fruity flavors and just enough woody vanilla overtones to be an excellent rum and not a whiskey wannabe.

I'm not one who normally drinks rum straight but the Kirk and Sweeney 12 year rum is so smooth that it actually might be one I could enjoy neat. However I use it as is my norm in Coke Zero and it blends amazingly well (3oz in a 16.9oz Coke Zero). In fact it actually makes the Coke Zero taste better IMHO. I recently found the K&S 23 year rum and will try it soon comparing it to the 12 year to see if I (a rather rum-uneducated fellow) can detect any discernible differences. However based upon how good the 12 year it, I expect the 23 year rum to be, at least, equally as good. Perhaps better. We shall see.

BTW, the bottle is rather unique in that how thick and heavy the glass is. Almost too nice to recycle once the rum is gone. Any suggestions on a re-use for the K&S bottle?