Another Rum from the Duchess, and you know I love most of those. I am currently on my 2nd botle of their Barbados 18 and loving it.
This new one comes from quite a different distillery in Guyana by the unpronounceable name of Uitvlugt ( good luck in trying to say that, but you can try saying “owt-flut”).. distilled in 1993 and bottled in 2020, cask #5, bottled at 50.1% and donning the image of a hummingbird.
Nose: Starts quite briny with canned olives in brine, licorice and a certain sweetness, rubber and eucalyptus along with wood spices (pepper, nutmeg, ginger), and some earthy funk/tar alongside ginger cookies and bay leaf.
Palate: bitter smokey and spicy, with black pepper/ginger on the first wave of sensations, also dusty, more licorice and eucalyptus extract, bitter olives in brine, salt, and more licorice, and hessian.
Finish: dry, pepper, minty, earthy, camphor, and kerosene as well, very austere, but also very complex and ‘dark’, the spices and smoke with the dry notes create a lovely mix.
Conclusion: A very complex and different animal this one is! it does try to be likable. No sweetness at all, if you’re looking for that in a Rum – this ain’t your style. But, on the other hand, it’s very rewarding, very complex and very very interesting, and worthy of a long sniffing and sipping session. Very good!
available from Best of Wines for € 240