Rum Artesenal Guyana Rum Enmore
Rum Artesenal are a small Independent bottler from Germany. They have bottled a number of rums from various sources over the past couple of years.
Unfortunately due to the size of the operation and the language barrier, I have been unable to find any other information on them.
Their rums are available in Germany, Denmark and other parts of mainland Europe. I have not seen any bottlings from them in the UK.
Their rums are presented in stubby rounded bottles with cork enclosures and a very simple logo. They post distillation and bottling dates on the bottles along with the usual ABV and country of origin information. The first thing to note is that these rums seem fairly inexpensive, for what they are. This rum retailed for around 50 euros. However be aware that the bottle sizes are not 70cl they are in fact 50cl or half litre bottles (almost pint sized).
So here we have a Demerara rum from Guyana. This one is from the Enmore Estate/Still. It was distilled in December 1990 and bottled in September 2015 making it just shy of 25 years old. It is Single Cask and bottled at 61.2% ABV. Which they note as Cask Strength. This would suggest that it has been mostly European aged.
Recently I have received information which suggests all Demerara rum which is exported from DDL is not aged for particular long periods before it is removed from the tropics.
What still the rums were distilled on can become a bit of a mystery. DDL comprises of a number of stills. Many of these stills were at one point housed at another distillery. In some instances more than one distillery. As a result some rums are labelled according to the still they are produced on and some are noted by the distillery they came from. Others are just denoted as Diamond Distillery (the original name of the distillery where DDL now operate).
Luckily it seems many rums relating to “Enmore” are from the following still.
The Enmore two column still comes from the Enmore Distillery/Sugar Factory. It was moved to DDL in 1993. It is the oldest operating Wooden Coffey still and can produce 9 different marques of rum from light to heavy. The rum is often used in Dary and Navy blends.
Unfortunately, this bottling refers to a Pot Still. From looking at Marco Freyr’s outstanding essay on Demerara rum I have learned that there was a pot still at Enmore Distillery at the time of this distillation (in 1990). It was a single Wooden Pot Still formerly from the Versailles distillery. Confused? You want to try researching this. Word to the bottlers can you please just note the still the rum came from in future? It will make things a lot easier! If anyone has more certain information please let me know.
I’ve reviewed a few Enmore rums – with varying results. In line with most of the Demerara stills I have found both good and bad rum from most.
With little further information to add we will move straight into the nosing and tasting.
In the glass the rum appears to be uncoloured. For a 24 year old rum it is light in colour – gold rather than the mahogany colour these aged rums are often presented at. With a little help from E150.
Which is nice to see the bottlers are confident in the liquid and haven’t felt the need to adulterate the colour to suit popular opinion. The Hydrometer also agrees that this is a spirit bottled at 61% (or thereabouts – its not accurate enough for 61.2%)
Sipped this rum is quite familiar – it reminds me of a Bristol Enmore I reviewed a while back.
It’s a dry, spicy rum with not much in the way of sweetness. It has a hint of sweetness at the very beginning but it quickly gives way to a more harsh slightly metallic note. I’m fairly sure that this rum is from the same still as the Bristol 1988 Enmore.
Even watered down it is still quite edgy and unforgiving. It’s not particularly complex. There isn’t a great deal going on here. There is a lot of oak and I think all the vibrancy and youthful sweetness has been drained out of this rum by the ageing. 24 Years is a lot of ageing – especially in the same cask and particularly for a rum which is from a single cask. It is worth noting at this stage that this rum has not benefitted from being blended with other rums, as is so often the case.
This probably should have been bottled much earlier or blended with other rums. On its own it is simply just too dry and you end up feeling like all you are really tasting is a charred oak barrel. Rather than become richer and more fruiter like a Velier bottling this has been dried out and overly spicy.
I wish I could give a few more tasting notes but unfortunately this is just all a bit one dimensional.
Disappointing and definitely not the greatest Demerara you will ever try. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to try this particular rum. I wouldn’t totally discount this bottler in future – it is never fair to judge an Independent bottler on one failed experiement.
Appleton Estate 2003 Hearts Collection. My only hope with this review is that I have enough to write about to flesh out another full review. I fear I may have covered quite a lot of ground with my previous review of the 
It is a 100% Pot Still rum and Joy Spence once again will not reveal the marque of rum used in the release. The rum has been aged for 18 years in Jamaica in ex-bourbon barrels. The rum was bottled in 2021.
Papa’s Pilar “Never a Spectator”. Pilar was the name of a customised boat commissioned by Papa – Ernest Hemingway. If you don’t know who Ernest Hemingway is then you can either visit the rum’s 
and column distilled rums (I will be as bold as to guess the pot stilled rum is from the Caribbean but I may be wrong). It is then Solera Blended in Florida. Double Aged in Bourbon Barrels and then Port Casks. It is then finished in Spanish Sherry Casks.
Pouring the rum. Surely one of the most basic things if not THE most basic thing to consider when designing a rum (or any spirit) bottle. The rum pours very badly and if you are trying to get an exact measure you have no chance. If you try to pour a little it slopes down the side of the bottle due to the size of the neck. Pour more and it works better but its still very messy and you need to be pouring into quite a wide glass to avoid spillage. Such is the issue with pouring the rum I have decanted it into a standard bottle. The rum bottle looks fantastic but its style over substance!
importantly for a rum which has cost me £55 I should be able to sip it. Papa’s Pilar 24 is smooth, very little burn. However, it is not as sweet as the nose would suggest. There is a fair amount of orange peel or marmalade like bitterness, especially on the finish and the aftertaste. It’s initially quite sweet in some respects it could be cloying but the sweetness is quite short lived.
The Real McCoy Aged 10 Years Limited Edition Rum. It’s proving quite dificult trying to keep pace with the output from the Foursquare Rum Distillery. Not content with various re-vamped releases from their existing portfolio such as higher ABV offerings of R L Seale’s, Doorly’s 3 Year Old and Doorly’s XO. Foursquare have also added further aged Doorly’s at 12 and 14 Years old and numerous (we are now up to release number 12) Exceptional Cask Series rums in the past 5 years alone.
Rather than improve this rum, I think the 10 Year Virgin Oak blend is actually drying the overall profile out. It’s thrown it out of sync. I’m not getting the vanilla, toffee,banana and coconut notes I enjoy in other aged Foursquare/The Real McCoy releases. This is bone dry and I’ve really struggled with it.
Walter Hicks 125 Navy Rum hails from St Austell, Cornwall. Produced by 
It’s not a massively unpleasant sipper with a little water but it lacks any real complexity. Walter Hicks is full of “menace” and is quite spicy but it doesn’t really have a great deal of definition or individual flavours. Hot, sweet and very boozy.
Diplomatico Seleccion De Familia. At one time Diplomatico was perhaps second only to Ron Zacapa in terms of “Premium” rum. For many, rums such as Ron Zacapa, Diplomatico, El Dorado and Bacardi are still seen as the very pinnacle of rum production.
Presentation wise the rum used the traditional rounded stubby bottle favoured by the other expression in the core range. Presentation is very similar to Reserva Exclusiva just with a different colour scheme. Once again the renouned 19th century rum lover and explorer Don Juan Nieto Melendez or Don Juancho, is pictured on the label. A nice chunky cork stopper and a nice “cannister” complete the Premium look of this particular rum. It is easily available here in the UK and you can pick it up at
At 43% ABV it’s very easy going on the nose and it isn’t pulling up any trees to try and get my attention. It’s pleasant enough in a kind of “Plain Jane” sort of way. I’ll even that up and say its quite an “Average Joe” kind of nose. I don’t want the Cancel Culture posse getting on my back and calling me sexist.
Rum & Cane Merchants Mauritius XO Single Cask. I’ve covered a bottling from Rum & Cane Merchants previously. If memory serves me correctly that was an offering from 
Another and personally this is not so much of an issue, is the ABV. A lot of the time when people buy Single Cask rum they like to feel they are getting it direct from the Cask, with no further interference. For some even the addition of water will lead them to seek out a Cask Strength alternative.
Anyway, enough of my jabberings. Lets get on a see how this rum goes down.
This is a really interesting bottling. It’s best described as aged Rhum Agricole with a drop or two of Tabasco towards the end. It combines everything you want and enjoy in aged Agricole Rhum with spicy twist at the end.