EL DORADO Special Reserve 21 year Old Guyanan Rum, 70 cl Bottle (Packaging may vary)

Product Information

Sipped I’m again reminded of the El Dorado 12 – it offers a very rich and fruity mouthful. Fortunately rather thanheading in a sweeter direction after the initial sip the Enmore1993brings some more tannic red wine like notes, a nice spiciness mixes with some good well balancedoaked notes. There is also a hit of slightly bitter/sweet coffee beans. I seem to have enjoyed this more than others. I personally found it to be equally as good as some of the Velier Demerara’s I have tried. Very loosely we may put my scores into terms that you may be familiar with on a Gold, Silver, and Bronze medal scale as follows: Hailing from Guyana, El Dorado makes what is known as demerara rum, which is simply a rum from the Guyana area that is made using demerara sugar, aka turbinado sugar — you probably know the coarse brown crystals best under the trade name Sugar in the Raw.

The Enmore1993 is a 21 year oldrum – I’m not totally sure when it was bottled but its maturation must have ceased in 2014 tomake it a 21 year old rum. It’s a little disappointing that almost a year since they announced this release DDL have not released anything else new. I do hope they have plenty moreup their sleeve! When tasting the rum for the first time, the extra ageing of the spirit is clear. There is an extra layer of oak in the profile compared to the younger expressions. The 21 exhibits all the classic rich dark dried fruits and warm spiciness of classic Demerara rum. It is rich and sweet almost like a Christmas Pudding in a glass. Notes of oak and a slight spiciness also comes through. The rum is very smooth and easy drinking but complex enough to ensure you savour each sip of the drink. The finish is long lasting and very enjoyable. Guyana was a pristine land inhabited by Arawaks and Caribs when Christopher Columbus came ashore in 1498, though it was not produced on a large scale until the late 1700s, roughly a century later than in the rest of the Caribbean. As Guyana’s plantation owners entered the sugar industry late, they were able to import advanced equipment for milling sugarcane and the industry exploded. Personally speaking I cannot give any rum a 10 because I do not believe a perfect rum exists. The late great Vince Lombardi once said, "Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.""The sip holds onto the spices, nuts, fruit, and tobacco the longest as a mild sense of cedar arrives on the end, with one of the slowest fades on this list.

Master Blender Trudiann Branker hit it out of the park with this Barbados rum. The expression is a blend of rum aged for five years in Tawny Port casks that’s married to 14-year-old rums aged in ex-bourbon casks. That blend is then transferred to fresh Tawny Port casks for a final year of resting/finishing. The rum is then bottled at cask strength with no fussing whatsoever. There are around 3000 bottles of each of the Rare Collection available. Which means they are definitelynot a Single Cask rum or likely asingle distillation. This rum islikely ablend from the Enmore Coffey Still married together to produce one larger “batch” of rum. To have yielded 3000 bottles we are talking about a lot of barrels when one considers the Angel’s Share which could have run at over 75% total yield! This of course is just my own musings and suggestions. If anyone has more solid information or a difference of opinion please let me know. I’m offering this insight in the absence of the “correct” information. As pictured the rum looks very dark in the bottle but lightens up once poured in the glass. The rum is a deep rich mahogany colour. The nose is that classic Demerara but more specifically El Dorado nose. Anyone who has tried an El Dorado rum will recognise the rich, fruity notes. The brown sugar and spices. Lovely. Very inviting. Even once the rum is gone nosing the empty glass is a joy. There is nothing in the nose which is off putting or feels like it shouldn’t be there.The immediate nose is full of baking spices, orange peel, vanilla, and dry fruits. There are absolutely no medicinal notes or harsh scents associated with the aroma. As the rum decants, I begin to sense glimmers of almonds and hazelnuts weaving through the tapestry of smells, and I sense a building oakiness which is bringing more spice to the fore. The fully decanted glass is steeped with brown sugars and toffee and even features a vague impressions of anisette and apricot brandy. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. The El Dorado Rare Collection will likely need little introduction. This is a rum from the EnmoreEHP(Edward Henry Porter – original owner of what was the Enmore Estate) Wooden Coffey Still. The jewel in the crown of Demerara Distillers Limited, certainly for those of modest means is the El Dorado 21 Year Old Finest Demerara rum.

This well-crafted expression is a marrying of Venezuelan rums aged in ex-bourbon and ex-single malt casks for up to 12 years. The rums are then hand-selected and hand-blended to find the perfect balance of taste and texture. The blend finally spends a year in sherry casks to give it that final note of ultra-refinement. I’m a huge fan of Demerara rums and El Dorado rum in particular. This bottle was a very welcome Christmas treat. It has long been a rum I simply must try. Which is one the most heralded stills in DDL’s portfolio. It is capable of producing a number of different marques of rum from light to heavy and is featured regularly in both El Dorado’s and other independently produced blends. Demerara Distillers launched the El Dorado range of rum into the market in 1992, becoming one of the first rum producers to market a premium quality aged rum, El Dorado 15 Year Old Special Reserve. The El Dorado range has become the internationally recognised benchmark for many rum brands that choose to display an age-statement on their bottle. This is significant in that each age-statement on El Dorado rums specifically indicates the youngest rum in the blend, even though the oldest rum may be many years older.This really needs a little time to open up on the palate. Let it bloom in the glass with a touch of water and take your time savoring each sip. Pusser’s Aged 15 Years Pussers This is one of those sips that make you say, “wow…” It’s just so goddamn easy to drink without water. It’s also a wonderful outlier on this list with all that cherry really bringing some brightness. Goslings Papa Seal Single Barrel Goslings Distilling was introduced in the 1850’s by the British and not long after there were more than 300 sugar estates producing their own rums, though by the end of the century that number began to drop along with the number of sugar plantations. By the 1930s there were 230 operating sugar plantations and in 1958, only 18. Each estate produced its own distinctive rum and they were given their own marks to identify the origin, for example, PM is Port Morant. These rums were shipped to England and the trading name Demerara Rum was established. Flavor Characteristics and the Coffey Still