Across the rum world, old @velierspa demerara rums are increasingly difficult to find, and even more so to find an open bottle considering that most are being sold at extravagant secondary market prices. Thankfully @theauldalliance recently opened a special one in the form of the UF30E 1985. It is rather interesting because the UF30E lacks a distillation marque, leaving us to wonder which still it was distilled from. Instead the barrels were found marked with Uitvlugt Field 30 East, denoting the plot of land where the sugarcane responsible for this rum was grown. The rum was then filled into 26 casks that spent 27 years in the tropics, of which only 3 casks (#10548 - 10552 - 10553) remained when it was bottled in 2012 at 60.7% abv with a total of 814 bottles produced.

The UF30E is rather subdued and takes quite a bit of time to open up, but undoubtedly one that is smooth and elegant, with subtle red apples and toffee. It has a nice air of freshness despite 27 long years in the tropics, yet balanced with a nice, warm woodiness all around, milk chocolates, vanilla cream, sarsaparilla, and most interesting of all - a hint of ginseng-like bitterness.

The palate was most certainly the highlight, rich and intense sweetness, honey and just a tad woody. Tangerines, liquorice and mild leather in the middle to give it just that little extra, followed by an incredibly long finish which brings back all those fruity notes I got on the nose, with ripe red apples, dried hawthorn flakes, marshmallows and cream.

Clearly the UF30E is quite an impressive demerara, intense yet lighter and fresher than most, characterised by red fruits and vanilla, instead of heavier notes of liquorice or purple fruits so often associated with older demeraras. Based on the profile, I am pretty sure this was distilled from the French Savalle still, and clearly not the Port Mourant, but determining the exact marque would be a tall order considering the array of marques the Savalle still is capable of replicating. The UF30E is thus a rather special example of demerara rums, and one that all demerara lovers should have the opportunity to taste.

Image Courtesy of @weixiang_liu

Your occasional rum addict!

@weixiang_liu