It isn’t everyday that we have the chance to taste a rum from the golden age of @velierspa’s Demeraras, when Velier brought to the world a selection of demerara rums that remains unrivalled up till today in terms of its uniqueness, capturing the essence of demerara rums in its truest form.

The sample I have today, thanks to the generosity of @bob_the_drunker, is from Velier’s 2011 release - the 1994 Albion. For the unacquainted, Albion is perhaps one of the lesser known marques from DDL’s array of rum marques, often overshadowed by the its pot still cousins the Port Mourant and Versailles, or the Enmore wooden coffey still. Albion itself was one of the sugar plantations in Guyana and was producing rums until its doors were shuttered in January 1968. The rums, bearing the marque <AN>, continues to be produced today at the Diamond Distillery, replicated by the French Savalle Still.

This brings us then to the issue of the bottle’s label which states that the rum was distilled on a “wooden continuous still”. Unfortunately, this is very likely a mistake, as the only wooden continuous still in 1994 was the Enmore, which only produced the <EHP> marque. The rum in question here was therefore distilled on the French Savalle still and aged for 17 years in the tropics before bottling in February 2011. This is also a blend of four different casks #7100-7103, resulting in 1,014 bottles at 60.4% abv.

On the nose, it is rather lovely, sweet, perfume-y, quite heavy on paint thinner. But aside from that, it has a thickness to it, caramel, peanuts, oak, and great sense of depth and maturity. And as it opens, it reveals a brighter side, citrus, cantaloupe, and a very slight briney-ness to it.

The palate too was so very interesting, almost unlike any demerara I’ve had. It was savoury, thick, almost like a brown sauce. If you’ve had candies with salt grains in them, this comes pretty close to it - a blend of savoury and sweet flavours that leans towards the former, but still finely balanced. In the middle are hints of liquorice, mint, just a very slight bit of wood. The finish is thick and long, becoming sweeter as it stretches out, red fruits, leather, vanilla. I should also point out that it has a very interesting texture, starting and ending as a smooth treacle, but the middle becomes interesting by the introduction of a slight chalkiness, chewy, just ever so lightly, and in the end it works because it all sits wonderfully on the palate.

Undoubtedly the 94 Albion sits very high on my list of top demeraras. The combination of flavours and texture makes it a tremendous experience tasting it, cementing the myth of these lost demerara distilleries and how Velier had managed to bring to us what was left of a bygone era. I’m not sure if we’d ever find tropically aged ANs like these again, and if they do, I can only hope that they live up to joy and wonder that was found in these bottles.

Image Courtesy of @weixiang_liu