Rum Style

What is Spanish rum? This usually refers to the light style known as ron ligero or Spanish-style rum. It's made from molasses, distilled in columns, and tastes smooth, with caramel, vanilla, and wood rather than bold fruit. It's common in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Panama. Motril produces it using cane from Andalusia.

The style can be distinguished from its neighbors. Rhum agricole comes from fresh sugar cane juice and tastes grassy, with notes of cane and pepper. Jamaica distills in pot stills, ferments for a long time, and delivers fruit and esters. Spanish style comes from the column still and remains restrained.

Two things with similar names don't belong in the same category. Ronmiel de Canarias is a rum-and-honey spirit from the Canary Islands and is not legally classified as rum; to learn more about it, see the Gran Canaria region. And Rum da Madeira is a juice-based rum with its own protected designation of origin, covered in the Madeira region.

What does Ron Montero taste like? One reviewer describes the Gran Reserva with notes of toffee, chocolate, cocoa, tobacco, and leather. This is a dark, warm profile, just what you'd expect from a rum that spends a long time in new oak.

The difference from rum made in Jamaica or Guyana lies in the process. There, many secondary compounds remain in the distillate; here, they're stripped out in the column, and the cask sets the tone. As a rule of thumb: ester-driven rum smells of ripe fruit and solvent, while Spanish-style rum leans more toward pastry, caramel, and wood.

Legally, too, the style is a signature rather than a rule. There's no origin regulation dictating how rum from Motril must taste. What ends up in the glass is entirely up to the house, from cane to blend.

The profile sums up Motril's defining style: molasses, column still, bottled at 40% ABV, aged in new casks using the solera method.