Bristol classic rum, Enmore

I’ve tried some pretty old rums in my journey so far but this one has to be up there as one of the oldest I’ve tasted. This has been aged for THIRTY years (distilled in 1988 and bottled in 2018).. initially spending 20 years in ex bourbon before spending a further 10 in sherry infused butt casks.

For those that don’t know, Bristol Classic are an independent bottler that source and bottle single cask, single still or single estate rum.

This specific rum is a single cask rum from Guyana, distilled on the Enmore still at the Enmore sugar estate which shut its doors in 1994. To this day the Enmore still is operational at the last remaining rum producer in the country, Diamond Distillery.

Nose

I found this to be super complex, dry with tannins and lots of woody influence from the cask with the traditional ‘rummy’ notes sitting underneath. I also get bold red fruits, some grapes and a healthy amount of leather. Nothing suggests I’ll get any sweetness.

Palate

Tasting this… wow! It’s really full bodied and rich with a slightly oily mouthfeel and a HUGE depth of flavour. This is delicately balanced between the wood, sherry and red fruit notes with little to no spice/pepperiness which really surprised me given the ageing this has undergone. This is a little dry with a reasonable amount of chew to it.

A lovely warm, long finish again with zero pepperiness. The leather, wood and red wine hang around for ages.

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If you can find a bottle out there it looks to be around €400. Much like Caroni it’s not hard to see that the reason this is so expensive is because the distillery/stills are no longer but it is a stunning liquid that won’t be around for much longer so the price isn’t unreasonable.

10/10 – Letting the last few drops sit in the glass for 30 minutes has turned my entire living room into an absolute flavour bomb that has me wishing I could pour another.