Zacapa XO: Delicious, Sure

It’s not especially common for rum to be appreciated as, say, scotch and bourbon are. But increasingly we’re seeing “sipping rums” appear on the store shelves; premium spirits that are complex, high quality, and perfectly capable of standing up to their counterparts when served straight up or perhaps over an ice cube.

I recently sampled (extensively) from a bottle of Zacapa XO, a premium rum from Guatemala. The Zacapa XO is the top-of-the-line model amongst the lineup of Zacapa rums, and is a blend of rums that have been aged between 6 and 25 years, with an extra aging state in French oak barrels that formerly held cognac.

Let’s be clear: this stuff is good. Very good. But I’m not sure I’ll ever have occasion to drink it again. Premium quality, it seems, merits premium pricing. Go figure.

So, first, the tasting notes: Sweet without cloying; a very syrupy mouth feel for a spirit, some vanilla, almost butterscotch, and undertones of wood and cherry and spice. It lingers a bit in the mouth, not with heat but with a syrupy caramel. It’s an experience. It’s worth concentrating on.

But is it worth $100 a bottle, the suggested retail price? Zaya, my usual sipping rum standby, is very, very good, and runs about $26/$28 a bottle. Zacapa XO makes Zaya taste almost saccharine when juxtaposed. But paying four times as much? It’s a hard sell; I’m not sure it’s four times better.

I mean, credit where credit is due — at least the pricey Zacapa XO is delicious. Another recently sampled pricey bottle of booze, the Don Julio 70 tequila, was a $70 stinker, even if it does represent something of an achievement in technique. That was an easy decision.

Here some more reasons in support of investing a c-note for a bottle of Zacapa XO rum:
– It stands up well to a cigar.
– It has a beautiful, interesting bottle.
– It’s special enough that the rum itself is a discussion piece.
– It’s a potentially great gift for the rum or spirits enthusiast that would never spend that much for him- or herself.

So I can see purchasing it for a special occasion, perhaps for a night where you want to impress a potential father-in-law or to celebrate a big birthday.

Suffice it to say I am going to treasure my last vestiges of the XO while they last, because it’ll be about three years until I hit a birthday big enough to justify the expenditure for another.

In the end, it comes down to your level of disposable income and how comfortable you are “disposing” it on consumables. But you could certainly do worse. This is a very nice rum.

Tags: alcohol, rum, Spirits, zacapa, zacapa xo