Kill Devil Guyana Aged 11 Years – Port Ellen Finish. In all honesty, looking over my notes I thought I had reviewed more Guyanese rum from Kill Devil, than I actually have. It seems a lot of my Kill Devil reviews have been from Hampden Estate, Jamaica.

Anyway back to Guyana we are. This is another Single Cask and Cask Strength rum from Kill Devil. Kill Devil for those who aren’t in the know is the rum branch of Hunter Laing, who are more famous for their independent whisky bottlings.

Which goes some way to explain how they have got their hands on a ex-Port Ellen cask to add a secondary maturation to this rum.

In actual fact this “cask” is a Sherry Butt. So what we have is a rum being partially aged in a cask which was also used to age both Sherry and Whisky. It must have been quite a big Sherry Butt (some can house up to 600 litres of spirit) as there were 690 70cl bottles available of us this rum when it was launched last year. I’ve only been able to find this rum for sale at The Whisky Barrel. Actually I lie I was able to find it listed as sold out on The Whisky Barrel!

Bearing in mind that they have numerous other bottlings of rum which were available in much smaller quantities still available I am unsure as to where all 690 bottles have gone? I doubt The Whisky Barrel has sold all 690, besides which it doesn’t state this is a Whisky Barrel exclusive.

What is also puzzling me is that the Sherry Butt maturation is the “finish” so this rum must have been in another single cask capable of housing 690 70cl bottles worth of spirit. Most single cask rums I have seen running at Cask Strength seem to have bottling runs of between 250-350. Certainly much lower than this out turn.

Another puzzle is the exact still this rum was distilled on. It states Pot Still Diamond Distillery. So we have a choice of three – Enmore, Versaille or Port Morant. I suppose feasibly if we have a “blending” of two casks before entering the Sherry Butt (as the numbers don’t make that much sense) we could have rum from differing stills. It is more likely to be two very similar casks of the same “run” of rum, however. I hasten to say this is all just speculation.

I am also unaware of how long the initial maturation was. Which I assume was in an ex-bourbon barrel. Nor do I know where all the ageing took place. I am treating this as having spent only a minimal amount of time ageing in the tropics. Which is nothing new for a European Indie bottling.

The rum was distilled in April 2008 and bottled in 2019 noted as being aged 11 Years. As mentioned the only place I have seen it was at The Whisky Barrel, where it retailed for £70. The rum has been bottled at 60.9% ABV.  The Sherry Butt in which the rum has enjoyed the “finish” previously held Port Ellen Scotch Whisky for 25 years.

For those of you unfamiliar with Port Ellen distillery, the distillery was to be found on the isle of Islay. Again for those with little Whisky knowledge the island is famous for its style of peated whiskies.

So without further ado lets move onto the fun part.

In the glass we have a light golden brown liquid – which pretty much matches what I expect of an uncoloured rum of this age which has been mostly aged on the continent (of Europe).

The nose is very interesting. It is around 70% “rum” and 30% “peated whisky”. There are sweet familiar “rum” notes of licorice, molasses, toffee and vanilla which nestle nicely alongside a touch of peat bog, tar and some undeniably “whisky” like savoury aromas.

It’s all very interesting but very nicely balanced and I really quite like this. Please note at this case Peated Whisky is NOT my whisky of choice. I’m a bit sedate with my whisky preferring Bourbon Whiskey and at a push the Speyside style of Scotch. That said I haven’t tried an awful lot of Scotch. Anyway I digress….

Sipped at the full strength ABV it’s certainly a very fiery affair. The initial entry is full on peaty smoke and tar. Christ the whisky finish is certainly doing it’s work on the entry. That said a few more sips and my palate seems to be enjoying the peaty entry a little more.

As the Kill Devil Guyana Aged 11 Years – Port Ellen Finish, moves into the mid palate more familiar notes appear. I’m not sure what still this is from to be perfectly honest. Elements of it remind me of the Versailles but the aniseed bite is more akin to Port Morant. (Knowing my luck it’ll probably be the Enmore and I’ll be completely wrong!).

Molasses, treacle toffee and some smoky raisins come through as I keep sipping. There is a really complex array of spicy notes coming in and out of play as well. This is a very complex multi faceted spirit. It’s almost like a mixed Whisky and Rum in many ways.

The finish as you might expect at an ABV of over 60% is long, warming and fiery. That said it has a nice balance to it and the smokiness and peatiness fade nicely into some treacle toffee and raisin notes. It’s long, complex and very tasty.

I enjoyed this a quite a bit more than I thought I might. It’s suitably different to warrant a purchase. If you can track one down.