What do you think?

Say, you happen to wrap your hands tightly, around an old? Rare? Discontinued? Bottle o' rum... Which will never be produced again, at least in the same structure/volume/bottle/laber/decoration. Acquiring a unique bottle which is going to become a piece of history down the road, in short! Some readily available examples that even i managed to procure, are: The very old Mount Gay XO with the Barbados symbol on it, the older Mount Gay XO from Allen Smith, the numbered annual edition(s) of St. Lucia 1931 flagship rum... Popular rums that are going to change, such as: Plantation! Distilleries rebranding their entire range, such as Appleton (there are a handful of others, too). Those relics that some of you cling to, such as those Caronis etc. Or changing %alcohol percentage, such as El Dorado 15 dropping from 43 to 40. 1 Would you dare open the bottle of the "extinct" rum, like, at all? Won't you feel like committing something like sacrilige, vandalism? 2 If you ultimately do open the bottle, do you drink it all, or save a few last gulps, for an extremely rare occasion? 3 Do you absolutely struggle to fetch a second identical bottle, before you proceed to using the very rare one? To stash away completely closed and never open up? 4 Or do you use auctions and sell your rarities for a very nice profit? I myself have finished up Allen Smith's completely, am 1/4 bottle away from finishing the even older version, i have a second sealed St. Lucia 1931 no81 and that's that. I feel terribly for drinking up pieces of history...

If it’s something that I really like and that’s not produced anymore, I try to find me a second bottle before I open my last bottle. When it comes to some of my favourites I’ve already built up a collection. Picture: My collection of English Harbour 1981

What do you think? Stefan Persson user image

If it's not too expensive and under 1k, I would open it and share some samples with others. I don't want to consume 1k, but 100€ for around 10cl would be ok for me. I opened Zacapa 30 this year and shared the cost with some other connoisseurs. I filled a 4cl sample of the Zacapa 30 and kept it, the rest is drunk. I do that with valuable rum. I have Samples of Gardel, Rockley, Caronis, old Zacapas, XO Platino for example. You have the second edition? It's like a Zacapa 30, hard to find. I would open it. https://thefatrumpirate.com/1931-st-lucia-distillers-2nd-edition

@Stefan Hey, nice set-up! Looks like professional, too! @vomi Second edition yes, i drank up an entire bottle and i have a brand new closed, sealed and stashed away. I plan to keep that intact. Also, a store in my city has like 3 more of those, i am seriously tempted to grab 1 more. From what people say, it has to be the best from the numbered series and one of those with zero sugar added, too! Photo is from the one i finished: Say, how do you keep samples of your rums? In what container, how do you close it perfectly?

I would buy all three bottles of St Lucia. I use small 4cl bottles for Samples. Do you know this one? Pot and column still rum, for a good price. https://thefatrumpirate.com/chairmans-reserve-2005-vintage

I think I'd either enjoy (drink) the rum because this is the purpose of having it. Im not keeping it to my death but I'd wait with the special ones for special occasions and share with the others, even thought my friends are less interested in rums than I am. I understand the collectioneers but I want to experience the rum, just owning it is not enough for me. An unique rum can be also a good gift for somebody. It is always a difficult decision to sell the rum, especially if you haven't tried it but I would calculate it like this: if I can buy several other good bottles for this price then it's generally a reasonable decision. There are many i haven't tried yet which are not extremely expensive. I also think about investing in rums (they have the potential to become spectacularly expensive and now rum business is in the place whisky was 15 years ago). To solve the problem I try to clearly state whether i buy a bottle to drink it or to sell it in the future.

Inspired by my vinyl record collecting days that ended 25 years ago, I no longer collect anything. However, if I ever wound up with a bottle of collectible rum, I would probably hesitate to open it. That would probably last all of one week and then the fear of it deteriorating in the bottle would convince me to finish it in one month. I may have more than 300 reviews on here, but I am certainly not a collector. I like to keep 1-2 dozen different rums on hand at all times, and this evolves daily thanks to repeat purchases. I am also somewhat reluctant to try new rums and waste even more money. However, since there are many collectors on this site, I really think that a new classification called "Collectible" should be one of the choices. I am sure that the collectors on here will help Andy identify these. A good start would be anything by Caroni (which I cannot even get where I live).

Rum has to be drunk ! That's what it's made for. Primary. But if you have some nice sets of two or even more bottles, so enjoy one and separate the others to a save place. That's the way I like it to do. 1 Yes open it, but maybe for a special occasion. Every single-cask edition is limited and is not replaceable. I love it. 2 Drink it up with friends like kudzey says (not necessary at once :-) )But think, the higher the filling level the longer it's possible to store the opened bottle, if the level is very low, drink it up fast (the last 1/4within 3-5 month) @vomi: filling up a sample, a great idea ! 3 Yes, if affordable and worth to save, one for the throat, one for the box. 4 I keep my "darlings" for the next 15 - 30 years (hopefully) in the box. Then I drink some rarities with my friends or sell it for good money

@stefan nice port wall ;-)

Gosh, this is starting to feel like a virtual rum drinking party from all across the world!!!! My days as a position trader in the stock market during 2000 also inspired me to not invest in things that take up lots of room (like rum) and only may bring a profit decades down the road. My record profit in short time was buying a tech stock, going to the grocery, and selling it for a $65 net profit only one hour later. Gap-ups like this one are very hard to predict. I used MACD and RSI, but it was still quite stressful and drove my ex-wife away. However, everyone else was losing that year, but I was ahead by 32%. I wrote down all of my notes after getting out in case that I ever decided to return. That has not happened. Minimizing one's expenses works MUCH better than investing. One sees the results immediately. As for all that I have spent on rum in the past three years, I could have bought another car. I would still rather have my rum experiences than another damn car.

Cheers Paul !

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