Velier Diamond and Port Mourant a rare “blend” of Demerara rum from the Italian super bottlers.

From the Coffey stills at DDL and the Port Mourant Double Wooden Pot Still. These rums were distilled in 1999 and blended in the barrel, before being bottled in July 2014. A total of 1,148 bottles of this rum were available. It is safe to say its pretty scarce now.

Bottled at 52.3% and aged for 15 years this blend promises quite a lot and its predecessor the 1995 Diamond and Port Mourant was favourably received. The rums were blended and four casks of this rum spent 15 years maturing in the Caribbean heat at DDL.

The run of this bottling has now largely sold out. You may find a bottle for re-sale but it will cost you considerably more than the circa £130-50 these bottles originally went for! Presentation wise the rum has an orange, white and black colour scheme. The Velier rums are largely produced with a specific colour scheme for each still or expression. The 3/4 size opaque Velier bottle is again used for this. Minimilistic the presentation maybe but the bottle and sleeve gives you all the information about the actual distillate anyone shelling out this kind of money should want to know. There are no fanciful marketing tales. Rums such as this do not benefit from such things. Those seeking out these kind of rums know what they are buying, they just want the facts.

Demerara rum can be judged on a lot of different levels. The sweet sugared (and very accessible) El Dorado range. As far as Port Mourant rums are concerned you could add Pusser’s 15 Year Old to that style (again sugar added to the distillate). Moving on you will see a number of independently bottled Demerara rums with varying price tags. Most of which, aside from the Velier line do not benefit from extensive Tropical ageing in Guyana. Many independently bottled Demerara’s spend the majority of their time ageing in Europe in particular the UK. Some are spectacular (Bristol Spirits Port Morants are particularly good) others such as the Mezan Uitvlugt are not quite so exciting.

As far as my own rum journey is concerned I am particularly excited about trying some more Velier Demerara.

So here we go. First up to note is the colour of this Demerara. It’s almost black and with an Angel’s Share of 72% this perhaps shouldn’t be a huge surprise. 15 years of tropical ageing can certainly be seen with this spirit.

In the glass it is a very deep, very vivid dark brown with a really deep reddish hue running through it. It is noticeably not chill filtered as it does look slightly “murky” which will again please many “real” rum fans.

On the nose the rum is extremely rich. It’s a very full nose. Full on dark treacly molasses, raisins, Christmas pudding and almost marmalade like notes of orange peel. It is remarkably sweet and very inviting.

Sipping this rum reveals even more character and you get a real feel for the tropical ageing. The intensity of flavour compared to other similarly European aged Port Morants is very noticeable. It is initially very sweet – raisins, figs and some licorice. On the tongue you get more of the rich aniseed (from the Port Mourant) and some very tangy spicy aged oak notes. It is huge on flavour and even at 52% remarkably easy to sip. A little water opens things up a little and you get more of the lighter Coffey Still notes – some nice banana and light vanilla notes. There is so much going on, that familiar Demerara chocolate raisin flavour is there alongside the more delicate lighter notes possibly from the column distilled elements of this rum – light toffee, almost floral, orange zest and lime peel.

The rum has no real off notes, none of the sulphorous notes I have met with other aged Demerara’s such as the Silver Seal Enmore and to a lesser extent in the equally good Bristol Port Mo(u)rant 1990-2007. There are signs of ageing and nice big chunky spicy oak notes but they aren’t overdone and they sit nicely in the mix alongside everything else.

This rum makes me feel that this is what the El Dorado 12, 15 and 21 year olds could be minus the sugar. There really is enough richness and sweet notes contained in this rum to satisfy even a more sweet toothed rum lover.

This is very good stuff and a real experience in a glass. There is so much going on. As far as experiments go – this one certainly was a success. If you can track this rum down or know someone who has a bottle – make sure you try it.

It’s pretty amazing.

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