The Duchess Guyana Rum Aged 28 Years. The Duchess are completing their “Flower Series” of rums, complete with bottle design by Dutch artist Hans Dillesse, with their oldest rum to date.

Here we have a 28 year old rum from Guyana. More specifically here we have a rum bottled in 1990 at the now defunct Enmore Distillery. The rum was distilled on the Versailles Wooden Pot Still which by 1990 had moved to Enmore, before ending up at the Diamond Distillery (DDL).

This is a 100% Pot Still rum drawn from a single cask #49. Distilled in 1990 and bottled in 2019. I am unsure of the weighting of tropical and continental ageing. It has been aged solely in ex-bourbon casks and a 70cl bottle will set you back around €250. Try this link if you decide you would like a bottle. It has been bottled at cask strength of 54.9% ABV. On release there were 202 bottles available.

Design wise this is a pretty stunning bottle of rum and there is no sign of the slightly odd colour schemes, we have come across with previous bottlings. Some of the colours used made some of the writing difficult to read for some people.

In the glass we have rum approaching golden brown a shade or two darker than straw. The nose if familiar, quite like a few other Enmore and Versailles labelled rums I have tried over the years. It’s quite savoury with big woody notes and a lot of pencil shavings and a touch of tar and creosote.  Sweetness is provided by some notes of raisins and sultanas. A hint of peach and some notes of lemongrass.

There is a slight sharpness to the nose and a touch of menthol cough sweets. It’s very oaky with lots of wood and some white pepper.

Sipped we get a very spicy rum with lots of chilli and all spice. Again you get a lot of wood and pencil shavings which dominate proceedings. It’s a very savoury almost malty rum at times.

The sweetnesss on the nose has disappeared and this is a very dry spicy rum. Little sweetness aside from slight hint of aniseed on the mid palate. The finish is very savoury and quite bitter at times. A slight tartness is there like gooseberries.

Further sips reveal some more subtle fruity flavours especially on the entry. Slight notes of white grape and more bitter gooseberry and a nice hit of quite woody licorice root

It’s a very dry rum with quite a long finish. It’s complex but it is perhaps a touch on the “too dry” and oaky side for my palate. I prefer my Versailles rum with a touch more raisin and fruitiness. That said this hasn’t went as far as the Bristol 1988 Enmore which was too dry and oaky. I originally thought that rum was from the Enmore EHP still but I think I was mistaken at was the Versailles.

The Duchess Guyana Rum Aged 28 Years, has kept a good balance and hasn’t become overly woody. It’s a nice solid sign off from The Duchess. Price wise its not ridiculous bearing in mind we have a 28 year old rum. I’d imagine most people looking to drop this type of money on a rum like this will be pretty clued up on how it may taste.

A nice sign off for The Duchess’ Flower Series.