Post #306682 by The Mayor Of Exotica on Wed, May 16, 2007 6:33 AM

Wow, what a find! You are very lucky! To my knowledge, the aging process takes place in the barrel, not in the bottle. Perhaps some mellowing does go on over a long time in the bottle, but it is the interaction of the rum with the wood of the cask that contributes to the flavor. Rums age like whiskey in the cask, and very often a cask that was previously used to age Port or some other wine is desirable. The flavors of the oak and the previous contents contribute to the flavor of the rum over a long period of time. That bottle looks like it was aged for a while before being bottled, hence the label. Most rums are aged for a year or two, then bottled; some vintage rums for a few more. Bacardi 8 is one of my new favorites; it is aged for (you guessed it) eight years. In the "what is your favorite rum" thread, I recount an encounter with a vintage rum from 1937.