Bristol Classic Rum Enmore Still 1988
Bristol Classic Rum are perhaps more famous for their red labelled Port Mo(u)rants. This 1988 Enmore Still bottling seems to have flown under the radar. It has not attracted anywhere near as much attention.
As this Enmore Still rum was distilled in 1988. It is likely that it was actually produced on the old Enmore Distillery site rather than Demerara Distiiilers Limited (DDL). The record books tell me that Enmore Distillery did not cease production completely, until 1993.
In the world of Independent Demerara rum it can be very difficult to judge one bottle from the next. The Enmore Still used for this should be the EHP (Edward Henry Porter) Continuous Coffey Still. Which you might think will simplify things…….not entirely.
The EHP still can produce nine unique marques of rum from light to heavy. From what I can gather this rum is a lighter style. From speaking with John Barrett (the owner of Bristol Classic Rum) this rum has been aged for 20 years in American Oak (Bourbon Casks) and did not have any kind of finish applied to it. It spent most of its twenty years ageing here in the UK.
Which along with all the various stills and marques of rum available under the Demerara name adds another factor when it comes to a potential purchase. Tropical Ageing or Cooler Climate European Ageing.
This rum was bottled way back in 2008. I’m not quite sure how long after that it was made available. I have been told that the only remaining bottles are already with the retailers. There will be no further issues of this particular vintage – this is all Bristol had and its now all gone as far as they are concerned. I didn’t get tube container with this bottle and the label is more the old style Bristol label. So it must be a good few years old.
In the UK a bottle of this (if you can find one) will retail at around the £90-95 price point and it is bottled at 43% ABV.
The Enmore Still 1988 is a very light Demerara rum. Similar in colour to Bristol’s Diamond Distiilery 1998. A light gold to straw colour. It is slightly cloudy suggesting no filtering. The colour also suggests no or minimal caramel was added. It is often not the bottler who adds the caramel. DDL are known for adding caramel before the rum is aged.
The nose is pretty big, like the Port Mo(u)rant bottlings, it has a slightly musky, sulphourous note to it. It’s almost savoury smelling. Leather and tobacco. Reassuringly after a little time in the glass you get less sulphur and more balanced oaked aromas. The lighter style of the rum comes through more. You get a more familiar raisined Demerara note.
Sipping this rum is a bit of a mixed bag. It starts out fairly light with some sweet fruit notes – raisins and a touch of banana. It then changes very quickly. The more oaked notes take over along with some sulphurous chemical like flavour. These notes overwhelm the palate.
Further sips reveal more of the lighter notes, more fruit for a little longer but again the mid palate and the finish are overwhelmed by the more musty tobacco and almost petrol like notes. You could well believe that this was an experimental blend of Caroni and Demerara.
The finish is very hot and spicy and long lasting. Its mainly the leather, tobacco and slightly petrol like notes (or fumes) you are left with, unfortunately.
From a personal viewpoint there isn’t enough of the fruity Demerara notes in this rum. Not enough complexity beyond the oaked notes to make this a really brilliant rum. It’s not a bad rum but there is a sense that its a little overoaked, Maybe the lighter rum just wasn’t quite up to 20 years of ageing? You just get the feeling that one of the components in this rum just hasn’t quite turned out as you might have hoped. Something has just went a little wrong with this.
It’s a piece of history. For a 20 year old rum it isn’t really that expensive. Compared to the Silver Seal Enmore 2002 – this falls quite a way short. It’s a good authentic rum. One that I am pleased to have tried but it wouldn’t be one I would buy again.
Jamaican Rum JMH Thompson Bros and Bar Tre. You might be forgiven for thinking I have already reviewed this. I haven’t the rum I reviewed very recently with a very similar title was JMM rather than JMH. The JMM and JMH I am now assuming to mean JaMaica Monymusk and JaMaica Hampden. As this particular single cask bottling hails from the Hampden Estate, Trelawny, Jamaica.
As with the previous Jamaican JMM review this is a collaboration between Thompson Bros and Bar Tre, Hiroshima. As a result local Japanese artist Yu Kurahashi. When released (around a week ago) this retailed at around the £140 mark. I’m afraid I can’t find anywhere that still has this for sale. So secondary market again.
On the 14th January 2016 Demerara Distillers Limited announced their first foray into the world of Cask Strength bottlings. Except they didn’t, well not directly anyway.
Enmore (EHP), Port Mourant (PM) and Savalle Still’s (ICBU). However many connessieurs shunned them in favour of independent bottlings as they were only released at 40% ABV. Those more familiar with El Dorado 12 or 15 were also left largely puzzled by the rums as they weren’t as “sweet” and as approachable as they were used to. You can read all about them here 
who like ED12 and 15.
Dead Reckoning Rum Mutiny South Pacific. Another bottling from new Independent bottlers Dead Reckoning. If you aren’t familiar with the brand it is likely because you aren’t living in Australia. Unlike many Independent bottlers Dead Reckoning aren’t based in Europe (or even the US which has seen more Indie bottlers sprout up lately).
There’s so much going on with this rum – so it is very much a slow sipper. In terms of overall profile it is one of the longest and most complex rums I have experienced. The finish is long and fades out nicely. However, such is the powerful nature of this rum it leaves behind a fair bit of funk, banana, tar, soot and molasses long after you have sipped it.
Our Rum and Spirits W.I.R.D. 2000. Our Rum and Spirits are an Independent bottler from Germany. They were set up by restauranter Christian Nagel who upon discovering how popular rum was becoming with his guests, decided to start importing and distributing rums which would be uniquely his.
Don Papa Rum Aged 10 Years. Alongside Bumbu, Don Papa have become the poster boys for adultered rum masquerading as premium. You could throw a few other rums into the mix, that use additives but Don Papa’s offerings are met with dismay and derision by most serious rum enthusiasts.
In the glass Don Papa Aged 10 Years is a very dark brown. Almost black. It’s a bit of a push to say a 10-year-old rum would be this dark even if it has been aged in Sugarlandia (I am not making that up it’s what they call it).
Fortunately because your taste buds have been assaulted in such a way you probably won’t even notice the finish. It’s very much a blink and you miss it kind of affair. A tiny hint of something sweet and woody – and its gone. All that is left on the palate is artificial bitterness.
There were a couple of rumours going round the internet last year that Old Monk Rum was going out of production, It appears those rumours were false. Still I felt it was about time that I published my review of Old Monk Supreme.
So what I should be faced with here is a older version of the 
It is not noticeably any different flavourwise. It’s okay as a sipper but the heavy flavour of Old Monk is quite cloying on its own. The extra 2.8% ABV doesn’t make much difference – the rum is certainly not noticeably any stronger. I would question anyone who would say they could notice such a small difference anyway.
I have one of these. Interestingly the back label makes reference to it being from the EHP still but the Bristol website says this is distilled on a pot still. The Versaille single wooden pot still was moved to Enmore following the closure of Versaille in 1977 and then again onwards to Uitvlugt in 1993, so between 1977 and 1993 Enmore were running the Versaille pot still – could this be from the Versaille pot still and not the EHP wooden Coffey still? Bit confusing given the difference on the bottle label and the website blurb.