Malteco 20 years old Reserva del Fundador 40°°, Malteco

Malteco is a rum from Panama, produced at the same distillery as Zacapa and Botran rums. It has spent 20 years in oak casks, at an altitude of over 2000 metres.

Nico's tasting notes

The nose opens immediately with pleasant caramel and vanilla, for a pastry-like aspect with hints of marzipan. All this gives a rather sweet and syrupy impression, then one is surprised to find a good dose of cane juice in this molasses rum (honey?).
Aeration allows the rum to expand, giving us a rich, brilliant honey. It sublimates the woody notes, which also appear bright and golden, as if lacquered with honey. Caramelized nuts add even more body and depth, and with brown sugar, we're almost in the register of a Demerara rum. Dried fruit adds variety, with raisins and apricots for example. Then the pastry profile comes in again, with vanilla marzipan. Finally, there are a few slightly oxidized wine notes, like an old Sauternes or Muscat.

The attack on the palate is soft, fruity, ripe and exotic. The round, candied character does not prevent a pleasant, savory complexity that envelops the taste buds. It's quite sweet all the same, but seductive, with honey and toasted wood. There are some heavier, deeper aromas and a little rancio (notes of oxidation as in a yellow wine, for example, giving aromas of walnut cracking among others).

The finish has a salty feel, extending the exotic fruit flavors with butterscotch. The famous little rancio remains on the palate at the very end.

"The candied side of this rum makes it seem like an old liqueur..."