Don Q Launched Two New Bourbon Barrel-Aged Rums
One of Puerto Rico’s oldest rum distilleries, Destilería Serrallés, announced this week that it was launching two new rums as part of its best-selling Don Q brand. And both happen to be perfect gateway rums for whiskey drinkers, having been aged for a significant number of years in ex-bourbon barrels to give them familiar notes of oak, vanilla, and caramel.
Destilería Serrallés was founded in 1865 by its namesake, Don Juan Serrallés, who founded a sugarcane plantation called Hacienda Mercedita a few years before that. He decided to import a copper pot still from France and began producing rum on it. Although Prohibition threw a wrench into the business plan, the Serrallés family stayed the course, and Don Juan’s son Juan Eugenio Serrallés eventually launched the Don Q brand in 1934, naming it after Don Quixote. Over the ensuing decades, the distillery and brand has expanded by acquiring Puerto Rican Distillers and its brands in 1985, launching a range of flavored rums in 1998, and even being the source of the ubiquitous Captain Morgan for a few decades by licensing the rights to the name in the Caribbean (the Diageo-owned brand has been produced on St. Croix since 2010).
The Don Q brand initially had a small footprint in the U.S., but that was greatly expanded when it relaunched here in 2006. The lineup now consists of a trio of core expressions: Cristal (aged and then filtered to remove color), Gold (also aged and filtered, but with some color), and the overproof 151. Then there are the cask-finished editions in the Serrallés Collection, including rums that get secondary maturations in wine, sherry, Cognac, vermouth, and port casks. Add to this collection these two new releases that complete the bourbon barrel-aged lineup alongside Reserva 7 and Gran Reserva X.O.
According to the brand, Don Q Reserva is a blend of rums aged for at least five years in bourbon barrels. The official tasting notes describe an amber-colored rum and notes of caramel, vanilla, oak, raisins, and plum on the palate. Don Q Reserva Especial is an even older expression, a blend of rums aged for seven to 10 years in ex-bourbon American oak barrels giving it notes of dried fruit, caramel, vanilla, and a touch of smoke. “With these two new expressions, we reaffirm our commitment to the quality and innovation that set us apart,” said Silvia Santiago, VP of manufacturing at Destilería Serrallés, in a statement. “Our goal is to offer consumers more high-end premium rum options, and what better way to do so than with Don Q.”
Both Reserva (SRP $22) and Reserva Especial (SRP $40) are available at select retailers around the country, and you can find other bottles in the lineup at websites like ReserveBar now.
