Barbancourt 5 Star Reserve Especiale 8-Year

Nice rum agricole. Tasty both straight up and in coke. Great value for money.
Edit: After the bottle being opened for a few weeks the rum began to have a wierd smell and taste to it. Ended up giving the bottle to a friend who mixes it with coke. Went down from a 7 to a 6 because of this.

UPDATE: Whenever I drink rum I let them breath in the glass for about 10 minutes. I did the same when I originally posted this rum and the initial results were such. However I had a feeling something was wrong with this batch as a whole, like the factory missed a mixing step. The smoke flavor was just way too high to be normal. I figured to get the smokey taste out would be just to stir it. So I poured the whole bottle in a pryex glass and put it on the stirrer and stirred for about 20 minutes. After having the whole room smell like a burning log I took it off the stirrer and tried it. MUCH better, the flavors are all there like they should be. Definitely can get the argicole taste now. And doesn't taste like a burning log anymore. Still not that good but enough to be enjoyable in a rum and coke.
I'm leaving the original review below \/
This is bad rum at all points. Opening the bottle it smells OK at best (kind of like a failed pusser's batch). Drinking it straight is okay for a millisecond (imagine a better tasting bacardi gold) and in comes a whoosh of harshness with so much smokey/tabacco flavor you mine as well suck the tail pipe of an 84' ford, there is only a faint hint of the grassy agricole part but that flushed out by the smokey too. In coke its much the same, it is less harsh but there is so much smoke flavor its not very good. It's not even a pleasant smoke like smoked jerky. It's more like the new guy left the space heater too close to the barrel and it caught them all on fire and they said "screw it we waited 8 years we are going to sell it anyway". Clement makes 100x better agricole. This could be good to marinate foods in for a smokey taste.

Una piacevole sorpresa.
Preso quasi per caso, si rivela un rum tutt'altro che semplice e scontato.
Leggeri caramello e vaniglia, miele che compare a tratti.
Finale secco, poco persistente.
Non stufa e si lascia bere con garbo.
Rum elegante e inaspettato.

I liked this one. Recommended by the local seller and he was right.

Vic's recipe, according to B. Berry, calls for 2 rums: an aged agricole and a dark Jamaican. (There is some confusion about whether Barbancourt is truly an agricole, but the label says "100% sugar cane rum" and that's close enough for my standards). There isn't enough character or complexity for this to be a top-notch, stand-alone sipper, but it deserves respect (and an 8) for making authentic Mai-Tais shine like the sun.

Goûté par hasard et adopté. Assez riche, équilibré entre douceur et impétuosité sèche, mais tout de même 43°. Boisé et fruité. Beau produit.

View: Pours light golden brown.

Nose: Faint hints of burnt vanilla, almost charred smell

Initial Tasting: No distinct flavors to pinpoint; almost medicine-like; a bit harsh on the palate

Body: Burnt sugar that doesn't last

Fade: Not much on the back end

Overall: Not my cup of tea whatsoever. Could be a good rhum to mix with; preferably with a fruit juice and other spirits.

Nice golden , yellow colour , aroma of honey and a medicinal smell reminds me of Witch Hazel ? As said , clean and crisp and rather dry. Tastes well made but not for me as a sipper , but it does make an excellent rum and coke !

I go back and forth between Barbancourt and Appleton VX. Barbancourt has a deeper level of oak and a similar smoothness on the finish, but I just can't bring myself to love it. It can be sipped, but for the all the fuss on the label, it isn't anything special. It seems a waste to dump it into a mixed drink, but perhaps for a Mai-Tai (which is what I prefer to use Appleton in) it would lend an element of toast and depth.

This is good rum, not great or amazing, but a good rum. Serving this to someone, I know I'm serving the good stuff but not the best. I drink it with one ice cube. The notes of oak are present with a small vanilla (not a spiced rum), the alcoolic "bite" is nice, it has a nice scent...

Definitely better than his younger brother (the 3-Star)... I love drinking it On the rocks, but it's an amazing rum in cocktails