Thanks to a fellow spirits enthusiast, ginesthesia (well, she likes gin, but let’s not give her a hard time) I managed to get a sample of this Guyanese single barrel rum bottled by Leith Spirits.
Leith Spirits is based in Leith (duh!), Edinburgh and they run a distillery where they make their own range of awarded gins and vodka, while also bottling rums from various producing countries. Their branding is quite nautically themed and they also have a continuous Leith Rum sourced from the Caribbean which is spiced with vanilla from Madagascar.
Now on to more interesting stuff – if you go on their website, on their “Leith Stillroom” page you can see all the single casks they have bottled which is what I’m really interested in. So far, rum-wise, they have sourced from Barbados, Belize, Guyana and Marie-Galante.
There is not much information going on besides the age of the rum and the cask number (#58). It doesn’t say which still (or stills) it has been distilled in so, just for fun, I’ll try to make an educated guess. Anyone that has tried this and wants to compare notes please do get in touch. For those who don’t know, Diamond Distillery boasts an impressive array of stills, some of them unique in the world – I wrote a little about them and linked relevant sources in my review for TBRC, Diamond Distillery, Unconfirmed Still if you wish to know more.
The Single Cask Rum Diamond Distillery is molasses based, distilled in December 2003 at Diamond Distillery using undisclosed stills and bottled in July 2019. It has been aged in an ex-Bourbon cask for 16 years and was bottled at 59.6% ABV. The label mentions “Unchillfiltered & Natural Colour” although looking at my sample it does look pretty darn dark – probably because of one of the practices implemented by Diamond to age with caramel added in the barrel, and nothing to do with the actual bottlers. Apparently there would be only around 136 bottles available in the wild.
On the nose there are the classic Demerara rum notes. Caramel, brown sugar, molasses, tobacco, leather and banana flambe. Raisins, charred oak, ripe red apples, ginger and nutmeg. My guess just from the nose is that this would be an Enmore, if not a blend containing Enmore. Black pepper, prunes, stout and dark chocolate.
On the palate, once again, fairly classic Guyanese rum profile. Burnt brown sugar, black coffee, maple syrup, banana bread and ripe pear. Brownies, toffee, dark chocolate, black pepper, ginger and charred oak. Cayenne pepper, molasses, some smoke, a touch of liquorice and a pinch of sea salt. Finish is long with caramel and chocolate.
All in all this is a good rum, but it’s a bit thin for me. It isn’t too layered, although it has some nice flavours and I’m a sucker for most Guyanese rums. Let’s just say I expected something more.
Can be found online for around £80 although it looks like most sites have it out of stock.
Single Cask Rum Diamond Distillery 16 Year Old – Leith Stillroom score:
Flavour/taste: 54/70
Value for money: 12/15
Transparency/purity: 14/15
Overall: 80/100
Cheers!