Papa’s Pilar Dark Rum

Papa’s Pilar Dark Rum: The website for this ultra-premium spirit traffics deep in mythologizing: “Hemingway lived an epic life in perpetual motion. And rum bore witness to it all.” You see, Papa is Hemingway, Pilar his fishing boat. The funny thing is this rum isn’t particularly terse or manly, even if it’s broad and bold. That’s partially since it’s made solera-style, with different distillations aged together, in both bourbon barrels and port wine casks. In a word, complex.

On the nose you get hit with a veritable candy shop of molasses and caramel, and that richness holds through the oaky-spicy sweet taste. It finishes surprisingly dry for all the action with which it opens. Sourced from Florida, Central America, and the Caribbean, it’s not about terroir in the slightest, but is about decadent pleasure (think Hemingway in 1920s Paris).

See papaspilar.com.