Another independent bottling up for review this time a Port Morant Demerara Rum from English bottlers Bristol Classic Rum.  Rather than bore you all with yet another monologue about Demerara Distillers Ltd/Diamond Distillery I will instead focus on the possibly incorrect labelling of this rum.

In both Guyana and Jamaica there are towns called Port Mourant (Jamaica) and Port Morant (Guyana). In times gone by both these towns have lent their names to Rum Estates/Distilleries.  In more recent times the Guyana version of Port Morant is, as well as a town now a name given to a double wooden pot still taken from the Port Morant Estate.

The Port Mourant (to give it its correct spelling) is used in many of El Dorado’s rum and a healthy portion of Port Mourant distillate is in Pusser’s blends.  So it is more than likely that you have enjoyed Port Mourant rum before just perhaps not in this guise.

The rum itself was matured in oak casks until 2005 when it was transferred to a used Port Pipe to be finished, for a further two years.  It was bottled in 2007.  I’m not 100% sure where the rum was aged.  From what I understand much of the ageing is performed in the UK, in what has been described to me as being almost like a kind of underground quarry!

The rum retails at around the £80-90 mark in the UK and seems to appear sporadically on various online retailers and in specialist shops. It’s very much a rum which you have to look out for.  I think more than one run from the 1990 casks have been released some with a Port finish and some without.  However, Bristol Classic Rum do not keep information on all their past products readily available on the site.  The rum comes in the usual Bristol bottle and although the rum is pictured with a Bristol tube protector this particular bottle did not come supplied with one.  The rum is bottled in a 70cl bottle at 46%ABV.  A hydrometer tests reveals 0-5g/L of additives/sugar.  So it is a pure rum.  As you tend to get from indie bottlers.

The Port Morant 1990 is for a Demerara rum quite light.  It is medium brown in colour with red flashes.  On the nose it has a familiar El Dorado/Demerara element to it but it also has a more earthy, slightly grassy note.  Similar in some respects to the Bristol Diamond Distillery 1998.  A deeper nosing reveals aniseed and wine like notes.  It is a complex and very unusual nose.

When sipped the rum is definitely not altered with sugar (see my Pussers 15 review if you prefer a sweeter tipple).  The rum is pleasantly sweet but not overly so.  The ageing in Port Pipe(s)? definitely gives this rum a very distinct flavour.  Far different to anything I have encountered previously with Demerara Rum.  Again aniseed comes to the fore along with a rich long lasting spice.  It is fairly dry rum but if offers a long finish.

The rum definitely gets better with a second glass.  If you allow the palate to breathe for a while the second tasting even is much more rewarding than the first. Once your palate warms upto the rum you definitely begin to enjoy it more.  It’s much like a real ale.  You may not love it on the first few sips but as the pint gets nearer to the end you find yourself, if it is a winner ordering another.

The fruity notes in the rum shine once you become accustomed to the rum.  Classic Demerara flavours such as raisin and currant but the port finish seems to give way to more plum and even a little orange citrus.

It’s not a deep dark almost treacly chocolatey Demerara like say Lemon Hart or El Dorado 8.  In many respects it reminds me most of Pussers Navy Rum (Blue Label).  However, unlike the Pussers Navy Rum this has an extra refinement which makes me not want to mix it with cola.

As a sipper it just remind me more of Pusser’s 15, however this is nowhere near as sweet and as mentioned has more in common with the younger variants of Pusser’s rums.