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Distilled in: 2001 |
Bottled in: 2024 |
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Distillery: Diamond |
Still type: French Savalle |
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Tasting notes: vanilla, mace, nutmeg, coffee, liquorice
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Strength: 48% |
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Availability: April 2024
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THE DISTILLERY
The Diamond distillery is located in Guyana and is one of the historic distilleries on the island that led the consolidation of the local rum industry.
With decolonization in the 1960s the handful of consolidated distilleries on the island transitioned to Guyanese ownership from the British and the consolidation trend continued. By 1976 there were only two distilling companies left standing: Guyana Distilleries Ltd. and Diamond Liquors Ltd.
In 1983 Diamond Liquors merged with Guyana Distilleries to form Demerara Distillers (named after the Demerara river that flows through the island’s capital city Georgetown), which exists to this day. As a result of consolidation in the business, Demerara finally started to give more attention to premium rum production as opposed to bulk rum, which resulted in the launch of the now world famous “El Dorado” brand.
In parallel, Demerara relocated all the stills from acquired distillers to the Diamond estate. In the case of Skeldon, the distillery has made several attempts at replicating the recipe of the rum originally produced at the Skeldon sugar plantation, including the 2001 batch we’re syndicating today, using the Savalle still transferred from the Uitvlugt distillery.
The acronym “SWR” stands for “Skeldon William Ross” and it is one of [if not the] rarest single rums of the Demerara family.
To add a touch of colour, Demerara sugar actually gets its name from the location of this distillery (or, more precisely, from the river of the same name). Historically, sugar manufacturing was the main source of livelihood, before the distillation of molasses to produce rum started.
THE RUM
This single cask rum has matured in a bourbon barrel for 22 years with a mix of tropical and continental aging. The cask was bottled at 48% ABV.
On the nose this rum opens with intense notes of vanilla and liquorice. It reminded us of baba cakes and Rossana sweets.
On the palate it begins gently with nectarine peach, before gathering intensity and releasing its spicy notes of mace developing into fully fledged nutmeg followed by pepper and cocoa.
The finish alternates between sweet fruit and dark roasted coffee.
We recommend you try this unique bottling paired with an artisanal baba cake or a good chocolate praline that mixes tropical fruits such as maracuja or mango with dark, buttery chocolate. Alternatively, the rum would also pair splendidly with a light-bodied, creamy cigar such as the Por Larranaga Montecarlo.
