Dos Maderas 5+5 PX

The burly 'PX' on the bottle refers to the sweet strain of Pedro Ximenez grapes. White grapes from the Andalusian province of Cadiz enriched with wine distillate and aged through 'criaderas y solera' process turn into ...sherry.

Originally British bodega Williams & Humbert buys Guyanese and Barbadian rum from the Dutch broker E&A Scheer. In Spain the distillate is aged in 'Dos Cortados' and 'Don Guido' ex-sherry casks. Sherry is poured also at the highest criadera stage (highest level of the set of barrels) in the solera process. Altogether it's thoroughly colonized rum.

'Dos Maderas' is undeniably unusual.  Furthermore, it emphasizes its uniqueness believing in image transfer from it's sherry expertise. In addition, the label full of numbers and plenteous in exclusive-sounding descriptions reaches consumers from rum peripheries. They may be encouraged to explore rum further as a category. However some prominent reviewers argue, that our today's hero consfuses and should be properly labeled as 'flavored rum'. I agree that all admixtures should be declared. Period.

The Spaniards buy molasses blends from Guyana and Barbados. You can only guess how they were distilled. The producer itself focuses solely on praising own aging procedure. First, the rum matures for five years under the Caribbean sun. Next, in Jerez for three years in Palo Cortado VOS and another two in Pedro Ximénez VOS barrels. Therefore two woods = meaning two barrels = in spanish 'dos maderas'.

The aging process undergoes the solera system; each year a certain amount of distillate is taken for bottling and the shortage is filled with the same portion from the barrel above. At the end, a 700ml bottle contains 26 grams of sugar.