What rum is NOT aged in a bourbon or whiskey barrel?

Thank you Paul B. I will definitely try the Plantation 3 Star

Thanks for all the information. Truly educational for a novice like myself. As for liking flavored rums, yes. I will try (and probably like) many types of liquor but I have never been a fan of bourbon or whiskey. The Diplimatico Reserva had a very heavy bourbon flavor that was offputting. I know some rums are starting to be reated in wine barrels as well as one that is rested in beer barrels. That said, I am having a difficult time finding a list of those rums. Without this, I suppose I will have to go with the trial and error method.

Hornet1968: I just checked your cabinet and you have lots of flavored rums in there, along with heavily sugared ones like CM Private Stock and DRE. On your wish list is one that I have never heard of called Downhill Slope Wine Barrel Aged. This one would seem hard to find. Kudzey just suggested Clairins from Haiti. These are for ADVANCED rum lovers. Since you like flavored rums, you risk a very high probability of absolutely hating them. By the way, flavored rums simply add their flavorings to white rums. As a slightly sweet white rum that definitely has no bourbon flavor, I will suggest Plantation 3-Star Artisinal. You can then add whatever flavors or juices that you want. And it is cheap!!!

Some of the Clairins are not aged at all if you are interested in this. While the majority of rums are aged in ex-bourbon barrels you might still be interested in rums which are finished in different barrels. Finishing is moving the rum to the other barrel for the final months of maturation. Yesterday there was a tasting of SBS, comparison of three rums finished in sherry, cognac and oloroso casks. Typy can also try Diplomatico Single Vintage finished in sherry casks, which scores good overall ratings. The question basically is why your rum was too bourbon-like. Maybe you just prefer the sweeter ones. Let us know which was the one you didn't like and we will come up with a more precise recommendation.

Hornet1968: Stick with rums from these countries if you want to avoid bourbon tastes. You will find a few exceptions in each place, but generally these are the least affected. Colombia (except for rums from Canasteros, which are obviously aged in barrels from Jack Daniels) St. Lucia Panama (except for younger aged rums from Carta Vieja) Dominican Republic Martinique (except for Clement 10 Year) Nicaragua To fully understand bourbon barrel aging, one needs to go back to a very long time ago when bourbon and Tennessee whisky were being aged in charred barrels. The coopers union found a way to get a law passed that using a barrel more than once was "unsanitary" and then made to be illegal. This kept the coopers in business and would eventually affect the entire future of rum aging. This created a glut of excessive used bourbon and whisky barrels. At last I heard, they were all shipped off to two different companies in California for refurbishing. The first stop in shipping them out would be Jalisco Mexico to make aged tequila. Then through the Panama Canal and all points in the Caribbean to deliver the rest. Due to the shear volume of them being available, these refurbished bourbon barrels are much cheaper than barrels that had been used to age fortified wines such as sherry, port, and madeira. However, many rum maestros now realize that bourbon barrel aging alone just does not cut it and use some of these wine based barrels in the later stages of aging. This greatly helps in most cases. However, too much wine cask aging can ruin what would have been a really great rum. An example of this is Don Q Vermouth Cask Finish. In Martinique, JM Rhum has found a way to reduce the char flavor by scraping off the excess char before aging their rhum. This is brilliant! On the opposite end, Clement 10 Year from Martinique is the rum that tastes exactly like a Kentucky bourbon at about three times the price. I call it a gluten free bourbon because no grains are used to make any rums or rhum agricoles. There are basically four different levels of charring for new American Oak barrels that are first used for bourbon or whisky. They are 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 35 seconds, and 55 seconds. The #3 char at 35 seconds is the most common. Some experiment with more than that, but I seriously doubt that these would be desirable after being refurbished. Wine barrels on the other hand are toasted instead of being charred. Rums age much faster in the hot tropics and the old warning about a bourbon spending too long in the wood holds even more truth for rum. I have found that optimum aging for rums in many cases is 8-12 years. Beyond that can get too woody in taste. However, Carta Vieja rums from Panama run in the opposite direction, whereby the 4-year aged rum tastes the most woody and is very undesirable. Keep in mind with these reviews, that some may like the so-called undesirable traits that many will hate. You have to find another reviewer whose taste closely matches your own.