Kirk and Sweeney was a schooner that ran rum from the Dominican Republic to the East Coast during Prohibition until the Coast Guard seized her in 1924 — and the rum named for her comes in a bulbous bottle modeled on the ship’s demijohns. Gran Reserva is the middle of the range, and the successor to the discontinued 18 Year: in 2020 the brand replaced its age-stated 12, 18, and 23 with Reserva, Gran Reserva, and Gran Reserva Superior, and this one carries rums aged three to eighteen years — Wine Enthusiast’s sample ran five to twenty — distilled from blackstrap molasses at Bermudez in the Dominican Republic and aged in used American oak, bottled at 40% ABV. Drinkhacker found a big nose of caramelized sugar, buttery toffee, and vanilla frosting settling into Tootsie Roll, sandalwood, and chocolate cherry, then a round, expressive palate of vanilla cream and caramel that’s noticeably less sweet than the old 18. Wine Enthusiast: concentrated caramel, salted caramel, brown sugar, toffee, and fig, drying to oak, burnt orange peel, and cocoa on a cayenne-warmed finish. Rum Ratings’ drinkers who knew the 18 find it similar, a notch below, and still a good sipper with a slight French-oak smokiness that improves with air. Honest note: the age statement is gone, and enthusiasts note the price didn’t follow it down — this is a soft, sweet-leaning Dominican sipper, not a dry cask-strength rum. For a dessert pour, a cigar, or a Rum Old Fashioned. The rumrunner’s rum.
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