Rey del Istmo Rum 10 Year Old

Varela Hermanos has been distilling in Panama since 1908, which makes it the country's oldest producer by some margin, and for most of that time its rum has left the country wearing somebody else's name. Rey del Istmo is the family putting their own label on it.

The cane is theirs. Grown at Pesé, cut locally, distilled in column stills on the estate — single estate in the proper sense, not the marketing sense. Ten years in American oak follows, in a climate where a decade does the work that twenty-odd years would do in Scotland. The angels take their cut fast in Panama.

The nose opens on vanilla and caramel with a clear line of anise running through it, then keeps going: dates, sultanas, orange peel, clove, a waft of cassia bark and charred oak underneath. There's a faint rose-water note that I didn't expect and rather liked. The palate leads with vanilla — crème brûlée, the burnt-sugar top of it — then stewed prune, orange zest, cherry lozenge, aniseed twists, Turkish delight. Toasted oak holds the whole thing together. The finish is quieter than the nose promises, tapering into something herbal and faintly menthol.

At 42% it has the weight to be sipped and enough lift not to be heavy about it. A rum for after dinner, when the conversation has slowed down and nobody is in a hurry.

How to Serve

Neat, at room temperature, in a copita or a small tumbler. A single cube if the room is warm — it opens the orange and clove rather than flattening them. It also makes an excellent tall drink with ginger beer and a heavy squeeze of lime, which is not a waste of a ten-year-old rum whatever anyone tells you.

Where to Drink It

Artesian at The Langham, where aged rum is taken as seriously as aged Scotch. Boisdale, if there is food involved and the night is long. Scarfes Bar at the Rosewood for the armchair-and-fireplace version.

Food Pairings

Slow-roast pork shoulder, pulled apart and piled onto something soft, with the crackling kept separate and salted hard. Ten years of American oak has given this rum the weight to stand up to the fat, and the clove and orange in the glass do what an apple sauce would. Fried plantain alongside, with salt.