Clarendon Rum Sponge No. 20 1997
For seasoned enthusiasts only: a 25‑year, tropically aged Clarendon EMB at 63%. RumX drinkers rave about overripe tropical fruit, gluey funk, dark chocolate, menthol and noble wood. A benchmark sipper, best slowly, with optional water.
- Huge complexity
- Tropical fruit funk
- Perfect oak integration
Details about Clarendon Rum Sponge No. 20 1997
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How does Clarendon Rum Sponge No. 20 1997 taste?
Aggregated from 48 community reviews.
World‑class, intense Clarendon EMB For seasoned enthusiasts only: a 25‑year, tropically aged Clarendon EMB at 63%. RumX drinkers rave about overripe tropical fruit, gluey funk, dark chocolate, menthol and noble wood. A benchmark sipper, best slowly, with optional water.
Seasoned Jamaica fans who love high‑ester Clarendon/EMB profiles, dark chocolate bitterness and menthol notes in a dense, ultra‑aged tropical cask‑strength sipper.
Beginners, anyone sensitive to high ABV or tannic bitterness, and value‑seekers put off by steep pricing and an intense funky profile.
How is Clarendon Rum Sponge No. 20 1997 rated?
RumX's 0–10 scale is strict — 9.1 lands squarely in the "Excellent" band. 100% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 0% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →
Rum reviews
A selection of the most popular reviews from our community. You can view the complete list in our app.
Review by Thunderbird
This is an absolute delight! Oily and soft, it spreads across the palate after previously treating the nose to strong stickiness and heavy fruit. The finish is herbal fruity and medium length!One of the best Clarendon I had in the glass
Review by Joachim Guger
Caramel and banana bread. Restrained polish and spices. Again, exemplary wood maturity. Warm, powerful. Perfectly balanced and - as the French would say - molten. Great mouthfeel!!! Funky. Long and very good finish. A highlight! Much rounder compared to the Fine Drams, more focus on caramel and banana bread. More drinkable, but also much more expensive. Not good for the wallet.😀 Beautiful label! Thanks to Bonn for this great sample!!🙏
Review by RumTaTa
Tasted in direct comparison with the Fine Spirits Clarendon 23 (RX16023).Blind I could probably not distinguish the two. The FD seems to me a touch funkiger and the Sponge by nuances milder and fruity in the nose.On the palate the same: very great similarity, as well as in the aftertaste. Nice that two excellent 97 Clarendons appear here. The Sponge gets one point less because of the worse P / L ratio and because the FD has a super practical bottle size.
Review by Mirco
wow, insane! Brings everything I want in a rum.
Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
#4374 22.10.2023 Whisky Live 2023 One i forgot to add from this event ☺️
Review by Rodolphe
😍😍 what a killer! Perfect balance between the greediness of the barrel and the tropical fruits! An enchanting nose. On the palate, it's very fruity, we find the slightly fermented fruits typical of Clarendon but without being sickening as it is sometimes the case. I also find the touch of almond. It's super balanced, really great. Another bottle from sponge that is really good! It's becoming usual.
Review by Serge
Insanely great, tropically ripened EMB with wonderfully fruity nose in addition to the EMB characteristics. Very similar to the Fine Drams and a track ahead ... but for the PLV in second place 😂.
Review by Oliver
Excellent Clarendon!
Review by kclo
Simply beautiful, a masterpiece nose to finish
Review by passlemix
It smells like a mouse, as a natural wine lover would say, when the wine lends itself to it. My first 9x, a small event for me. The nose is heavy and complex. It smells of fruit, but as if crushed at the bottom of an old rigging. Divine mirabelle flash. Lots of damp wood. Needs time to fully express itself. The Cleopatra glue doesn't weigh much next to it. Scents of red fruit and bubble gum at times. A classy nose. The palate is equally rich: pear charlotte, pepper, menthol, fruit of all kinds. The finish is very pleasant, but could have been even longer, even if it's already pretty good.
Review by Buddudharma
Perfectly balanced, intense profile that leaves nothing to be desired. Great stuff!
Review by cigares
A rum tasted at the WLP. A generous nose with lots of fruit, tropical and yellow with a slight acidity. Smokiness, varnished wood and pear cake. The palate opens on a peppery note, but the fruit rises in power with noble wood. The finish is, like this rum as a whole, balanced, long with a noble bitterness. The empty glass reveals even more flavors. Tasted again in direct comparison with the RA 1995 EMB and it's utterly delicious, even if it's livelier with more pronounced fruit.
Review by Adrian Wahl
What a device! This is one of the best I have ever tasted Clarendon. Absolute grenade. Tested against the Fine Drams Clarendon 1997. Not cheap, but an excellent bottling. 91/100
Review by mto75
the Sponge in direct comparison with the Fine Drams. Both mega intense and complex, with overripe fruit (overripe mango), rubber, floor wax, vanillle, old barrel...the FD goes a little more in the direction of sweet and sour mango chutney, the Sponge is a little rounder and sweeter (tropical fruit salad). The palate is both super intense as well, with rubber, bicycle inner tube, barrel, overripe tropical fruit, the finish is long with black tea and barrel / tannins. With its lower ABV, the Sponge seems a wwnig more approachable. Bottom line, though, I can't come up with a clear winner. Both top notch!
Expert reviews
Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum..
Expert review by Rob Bauer
"After the Monymusk Velier 1997 For Begnoni, this is the only 1997 Mony on the market so far. Almost completely tropically matured (22 years). With Clarendon / Monymusk is different from Hampden and Long Pond in my experience always: Tropical >>> Continental.On the part I was particularly looking forward! Also find the cubist, Braque-like label very successful! In the nose explodes first the glue! Almost already uitvlugtisch. Uhu, Pattex and tropical fruits, mainly mangos and pineapple, fire from all pipes. Really, really cool. After a while in the glass, light floral notes also come through, lavender first and foremost, which is typical old EMBs for me. But only very lightly. Dark chocolate and cedar notes. Warm coconut oil. But you also find a bit of overcooked strawberry jam and that Guadeloupe incense note you really only find in old Montebellos and Gardels. You have to give the bouquet time though. Fantastic bouquet.On the palate, a fantastic heavy sweetness and chocolate bitterness combine with the fine Jamaica acidity of the tropical fruits to create a wave of flavors that floods the entire mouth. Escape is futile! But in such a thing one drowns very gladly. While some 1995 EMB representatives can easily slip into the too woody, the wood is perfectly integrated here. The same goes for the alcohol. The 63% is hardly noticeable! With 22 years of tropical aging, the finish is naturally eternal. Conclusion: This is in no way inferior to the Velier representative. It's no secret that I'm an absolute Monymusk EMB fan, and prefer tropically aged Monymusks due to their heaviness and fatness, for example, almost all Hampdens when it comes to modern Jamaica rum (caution, subjective matter of taste!). This bottling plays directly times right up in the Jamaica Champions League and gets a whopping 92/100 points. Chapeau to Angus MacRaild for that cask pick!"
Community purchases
36 bottles logged by 52,000+ RumX members. The ratio of closed / opened / emptied, indicates whether this rum is meant to be drunk or is a collector's item.
Also on the wishlist of 52 members.
About the Clarendon distillery
The Clarendon distillery is located in Jamaica. Rums from Clarendon have been reviewed 5,557 times with an average of 8.2/10.
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