Kill Devil Guadeloupe Bellevue Distillery Aged 20 Years The Whisky Barrel Exclusive. Another collaboration between The Whisky Barrel and Hunter Laing’s rum offshoot Kill Devil. This time they have bottled two separate casks for 20-year-old rum from the Bellevue Distillery on Guadeloupe.

Today I am reviewing the following cask. Both rums are available only from The Whisky Barrel and are priced at £129.95.

Distilled in March 1998 and bottled in late 2018 this is a 20-year-old rum. It was produced on a column still (which makes me think it may be made from Cane Juice rather than molasses). It is a Single Cask Rum bottled at Cask Strength of 58.8% ABV. There were 245 bottles of this rum available on release.

Bellevue Distillery is on the island of Marie Galante, which is a part of Guadeloupe rather than being the main island. There is also a distillery better known for producing Damoiseu Rhum Agricole which also goes under the name of Bellevue on the main island.

I am not all together sure which distillery this r(h)um hails from. Information on the internet is conflicting. So any further information would be greatly appreciated.

Presentation wise the Kill Devil rums are always nicely presented the Cask Strength bottlings used a black and purple colour scheme and the opaque bottle is classy with a cork stopper. The rum comes complete with a cylinder to store the rum. It’s a very nice package overall and certainly a bit classier than some Scottish Indie Bottlers. Yes Cadenhead’s I do mean yourselves!

There are quite a few late 90’s bottlings of “Bellevue” rum out there. Rums of between 17 and 20 years old are quite common from this distillery. All are being bottled by independent bottlers and sourced from Scheer/Main Rum Company in Amsterdam and Liverpool.

I’ve enjoyed a couple of these rums in the past from various bottlers so my hopes for this rum are quite high.

In the glass we have a very dark spirit. Like an older Caroni rum. There is a tinge of red around the edges.

Nosing the rum reveals a very complex and quite smoky rum. It’s full of dark chocolate and some slightly tarry notes. Sweet fruity notes of blackcurrant and a slight tart marmalade also make an appearance.
It’s rich and complex. A “heavy” rum in many ways similar to Caroni.

It perhaps has less of the “off notes” of a Caroni though – it’s a bit sweeter and less industrial. The burnt tyres are subdued more with this rum. It’s still quite intense stuff though.

Sipped this is a very distinct style of rum. Rich and fruity with some real sweetness on the initial sip but it’s still very smoky and very dry. This is a rum which you will sip and savour. It’s very full flavoured and has a really long finish.

After the initial sweetness of blackcurrant and bitter plums you get much more smoke and oaky spice on the mid palate. This rum really coats the palate with rich intense flavour. Tobacco, leather and some dark slightly bitter chocolate are present alongside some zesty and spicy oak spices.

This is “hairs on the chest” kind of rum. Rich, warming and smoky. Ideal for cold winter nights beside the fire.

The finish is very long and full of peppery smoke and wafts of vanilla and caramel. The interaction with the oak gives this a really long finish which is wonderfully spicy but so well-balanced.

The rums from this distillery – I do suspect its the one on Marie Galante are fantastic and whilst you won’t find them particularly “cheap” they certainly aren’t fetching the prices some Caroni’s are.

Admittedly this is probably mostly continental aged in Europe but it is still a really rich profile for this rum. Think Tropically aged Caroni and Demerara rum.

A pretty excellent rum all round. The other cask is pretty much the same so you could safely buy either.