Outside Santo Domingo the warehouses stand close together, and the air inside is heavy and warm all year round.
Here time works faster than in a Scottish cellar. The casks give up their contents at a pace no northern European warehouse can match, and evaporation takes its toll every single year.
Opthimus is the Oliver family's answer to what that heat can be used for, if you have the patience to wait anyway.
Expert description
Opthimus 18 Year Cum Laude 2019 is a Dominican Rum from Oliver & Oliver, matured in ex-Bourbon casks of American white oak and bottled at 38%.
Oliver & Oliver is a family business with Cuban roots. The family left Cuba in 1959, and only in the early 1990s was the business rebuilt in the Dominican Republic, where it is now based in Hato Nuevo outside Santo Domingo. The house does not distil itself, but blends and matures molasses-based distillates under the direction of maestro ronero Don Pedro Oliver.
Maturation follows the Sistema Solera, the Spanish pyramid system originally developed for sherry. Rum of different ages is continually blended in a system of casks, so that a portion of the oldest rum always carries forward. The number 18 on the label refers to the oldest rum in the blend, not the whole content. That is worth knowing if you come from the world of whisky, where the age statement means exactly the opposite.
Cum Laude is Oliver & Oliver's designation for the bottlings the house itself considers top marks, and it is only used for select vintages. This one was bottled in 2019 in a run of 1,000 bottles. Each bottle is filled, labelled and numbered by hand, and the label is signed by the maestro ronero. The casks are former Bourbon casks from Kentucky of American white oak, and they are what deliver the vanilla, coconut and soft timber running through the whole flavour. The 38% is a deliberate choice by the house: the rum is built for softness rather than power.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Warm vanilla and light honey first. Behind that comes toffee, dried fig and a mild cocoa note, and right at the end a touch of pipe tobacco and dry oak.
Palate
Soft and round. Honey and caramel carry the start, then dark chocolate and roasted coffee unfold, and there is a lightly peppery edge and a touch of ginger in the background that keeps the sweetness in check.
Finish
Long and spiced-sweet. The vanilla lingers longest, along with sweet oak and a dry tobacco note right at the very end.
Specifications
Name: Opthimus 18 Year Cum Laude 2019
Distillery: Oliver & Oliver
Region/Country: Dominican Republic
Type: Dominican Rum
Age: 18 Years by the Sistema Solera method
ABV: 38%
Size: 70 CL
Cask type: Ex-Bourbon casks of American white oak
Bottled: 2019
Number of bottles: 1,000
Edition: Cum Laude
Serving suggestion: Neat at room temperature in a tulip-shaped glass
Flavour Profile
Sweet · Cask-matured · Vanilla · Cocoa · Soft
Did You Know?
Oliver & Oliver holds more than 3,000 American white oak casks, all of which held Bourbon in Kentucky before being shipped to the Caribbean. Few rum brands can match that cask inventory.
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