Review: Ten To One Reserve Cask Rum 18 Years Old – Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad

Ten To One‘s first single barrel bottling was a well-aged 17 year old cask from Trinidad, and now the indie bottling operation is back with not one follow-up but three — all single cask releases and all 18 years old, from three different countries: Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica.

These barrels mark the official launch of Ten To One Rum’s Reserve Cask Collection, and they are very limited offerings, with only around 325 bottles of each cask available worldwide. No distillery or production details were provided with our samples, so let’s dive right in.

Each is 92 proof.

Ten To One Reserve Cask Rum 18 Years Old Barbados Review

Surprisingly industrial on the nose, with weighty notes of acetone, furniture polish, and stewed prunes. More than a little overbearing, the powerful aromas eventually turn to perfume and dried flowers, with an underbelly of dates and figs. Intense and unrelenting, the palate feels much the same — quite fruity and pushy, with a massive floral character that evokes a fistful of potpourri — and an ample industrial quality to back it up. Notes of extremely ripe banana mix with green herbs as the finish builds, chased by nutmeg and — inevitably — a biting acetone note. This rum is a powerhouse any way you cut it, and while it’s too overbearing to sip on its own, it would be a delightful addition to a blend of rums in an upscale cocktail, or when used as a float, if deployed sparingly. B+

Ten To One Reserve Cask Rum 18 Years Old Jamaica Review

This is a classic Jamaican experience, deploying massive esters to the nose, touched with hogo and a massive amount of baking spice. It’s nearly as floral as the Barbados expression, but the Jamaica bottling showcases different flowers — here lilac and marigold over the roses that dominate the Barbados release. The palate offers a similar experience, though again there’s an industrial edge to the proceedings that evokes the significant age of this barrel. The rum is increasingly biting as it develops, those estery notes wrapping around the tongue to create an experience that is, again, overtly floral and a little industrial, with a soapy, disinfectant finish. I tempered this one with some water because the impact was so overwhelming, but I still struggled to wrap my mind (and palate) around it. B

Ten To One Reserve Cask Rum 18 Years Old Trinidad Review

Trinidad was the source of the 17 year old Single Cask release, so I expect this is the same distillate, just one year older. It’s a much different rum than the above pair, a more traditional (and welcome) offering of caramel, vanilla, brown banana, and spice, all layered on an immersive and soothing — rather than biting — nose. That banana builds and builds in the glass, its fruit becoming candy-coated and increasingly layered with caramel and chocolate on the palate. I didn’t get nearly as much of the rough hogo quality I found in the 17 year old (though that was also a single barrel), though there’s a tough underbelly at times that comes across as slightly beefy and a little vegetal. That said, there’s no shortage of power to admire, the full-bodied rum concluding with balancing notes of baked apples, white chocolate, and gingerbread. Versatile and very much sippable on its own. A

each $199

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