Produced at the historic Buena Vista estate in Nassau, the company seems intent on making a high-quality rum — not simply a tourist attraction.

And the early results were good — we tried the Amber variety, which is aged for up to three years, and called it a “very, very solid rum.”

What we didn’t try was the distillery’s top-shelf stuff — John Watling’s Buena Vista Rum.

That changed, however, on a recent trip to the Bahamas, where we obtained a bottle.

The Buena Vista rum is distilled in a copper pot still and, like the Amber rum, is coconut charcoal filtered. It’s aged in oak barrels for up to five years.

The Buena Vista has a very dark amber colour, with a sweet aroma of caramel, with a hint of coconut.

Its flavour profile is dominated by caramel, oak, cocoa, coconut, candied fruits, wafer and a slightly nutty character.

This is an excerpt from Caribbean Journal as it appeared on October 1, 2013. For updates or to read the current version of this post in its entirety, please click here.

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