Alambique Serrano 4 Años Single Barrel #251 - “T8KE”

Reviewer: Tashtego

Distillery: Alambique Serrano
Origin: Oaxaca, Mexico
Bottle Size: 700 ml
Bottle Count: 250
ABV: 51.9%
Distilled: September 2021
Base Material: Sugarcane juice
Still: Krassel column still
Aging specs: Aged for 4 years in an ex-bourbon barrel at the humid distillery
Bottled: February 2026

Nose: Green apples, dusty sugarcane, woods, elote, soil, chlorine
Palate: Sweet pepper, cane juice, mild citrus, mellow funk, sweet corn
Finish: Corn husk, sweet peas, oak

If you had told me even two years ago that probably half of the rums I’d be getting excited about right now are from Mexico, I’d have just stared blankly. Alambique Serrano is almost solely responsible for that development. They’re leading the way in introducing incredible Mexican rums to the American market at a furious pace. As Pickwick has noted in a recent review, you simply cannot keep up with all their expressions. I’ve personally collected 17 Alambique Serrano rums at this point, and that’s a fraction of what’s available out there. With very few exceptions, they’re great rums.

This bottle comes from Jay West who runs T8KE, a curated spirits program that’s primarily whiskey-based. You can sign up to receive weekly emails and then enter into a lottery to get the chance to order his bottles. This means, unfortunately, that there’s no more of this left to buy. This bottling is the third that T8KE has done of Alambique Serrano, after having visited the distillery in Oaxaca and selected a few barrels (his previous bottles include an aged high ester and an unaged rum made with muck - and there may be more on the way).

As for the rum itself, this is aged 4 years (which is as old a rum as you can get from Alambique Serrano right now) in ex-bourbon barrels and… that’s it. That wouldn’t be notable except that this is Alambique Serrano, where most of what they do involves exotic casking and finishing (think acacia casks and wet fortified wine barrels). In fact, this is the only Alambique I can recall trying that just has ex-bourbon rum. To that end, this might be the purest expression of Alambique Serrano that’s out there, since it’s been aged the way most distilleries age their rum.

The nose is enjoyable - I get a lot of earthy notes, like I’m walking through a forest in the summer. There’s a dustiness that I kind of like too - like if you’ve ever smelled an old windowsill that’s been baking in the sun. The palate doesn’t quite live up to the aroma. It’s a bit flat, reminiscent of aged Martinique rums (like an élevé sous bois) which I haven’t particularly enjoyed. There’s too much oak influence from the bourbon barrel - the sugarcane can’t quite stand up against it. This rum also lacks a lot of the baking spices that many Alambique rums offer. While it’s fairly dry, it does have some notes of sweet pepper (that I also tasted in the Prestigio release, albeit less spicy than that) and some sweet corn that you often get from unaged agricole. Happily, it’s easy to drink at 51.9%.

Overall, this gets a solid 3. Far from my favorite Alambique Serrano (hopefully we’ll get around to reviewing some of the best ones from the past), but it’s pleasant and certainly different from most other expressions from this distillery. The Haste score is a 3, but it doesn’t matter so much since, like most of the bottles T8KE does, this one is sold out. If you see it pop up at an auction site, I don’t think it’s worth paying more than the $90 MSRP.

Taste/Haste Scale: 3 / 3