Rum #2: Bacardi Reserva Ocho Rye Cask Finish

Intro

One of the main drivers of me starting this series was to work on culling my collection by emptying out bottles so to reduce the clutter in my home.

In this vein, this review will be the first successful bottle-kill since I plan to follow this up with using this guy in a cocktail for an upcoming post as well.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Bacardi Reserva Ocho Rye Cask Finish / 1 oz / 45%/ Puerto Rico

Background

I don’t usually drink Bacardi, mostly because the brand is responsible for diluting the meaning of rum for the general populace to mean essentially a sugarcane variation of vodka, but the 8 year expressions are the exemption from their line up and generally a good example of aged Spanish ron. This particular bottle was a gift from a friend for a party.

The standard Bacardi Ocho is a blend of 8 to 12 years old rums aged in an American oak barrels. Unknown how many rums are ultimately placed in this final blend.

They’ve taken the Ocho and come out with some additional cask finishes in a supposed five release series, per Bacardi’s website:

This new rare rum offering marks the start of a five-year collection, which will see BACARDÍ unveil a new cask finish offering annually through 2025, with the cask finish changing each year based on the type of barrel used for the additional aging.

The Rye version is the second in the series, with an Oloroso sherry being the first and the third a Vino de Naranja (Orange Wine Cask) finish. Given that it’s now 2026 with no fourth or fifth bottling, Bacardi has probably silently dropped this project, which is a shame as they likely have access to a lot of interesting casks due to the size of their operation and brands in their portfolio.

My particular bottle was bottled in 2022 and is bottle number AF385. I do wish we got details on what rye this used to contain, if we presume it came from a Bacardi brand then it’s likely it was a Angel’s Envy cask.

Nose

The glass has been sitting next to me as I’ve been writing up the intro and it’s surprisingly very aromatic, wafting over hints of maple and vanilla while I sit a foot away.

Actually putting my nose into the glass, the rye spice clearly comes through with notes of vanilla, gingerbread, and honey. After that come the denser aromatics of caramel, black pepper, and tobacco.

Mouth

On first sips it’s more viscous than I thought it would be and veryyy sweet, with dark brown sugar and maple transitioning into toast, tobacco, and honey.

At the end I get green apple, cinnamon, and clove which are actually quite pleasant and unexpected from an aged Puerto Rican rum. Reminds me of the minty flavor you can get from rye.

Going back for another round of tasting after changing my child’s diaper, those heavy sugar and maple notes in the front and middle start to become a dominant flavor of the rum to the detriment of the other notes I initially got. The apple and mint still shines bright at the end though, pleasantly enough.

Verdict: 6/10

While Bacardi generally gets no love from me, this bottling shows that Bacardi can do interesting things if they want. The rye cask really adds a fun nose of gingerbread and pepper that you don’t really get in rum, and that finish of apple and mint in an aged rum is pretty neat. Unfortunately it doesn’t stand up to continued sipping as the sugary notes just overwhelm your palette.

It’s a shame they seemed to have abandoned this series. Feels like an agave, Benedictine, or sparkling wine finished cask all could have been fun experiments pulling from their brand portfolio.