When we think of Demerara rums from the year 1975, the Port Mourant still naturally comes to mind. In fact the only other 1975 Demerara rum I’ve come across was one from the Enmore distillery and bottled by Silver Seal. Thus the curiosity when WM Cadenheads bottled this Green Label Demerara 1975 rum that had no indication of its provenance, its marque, or if it was a blend. There were five different bottlings over the years - first in 2005, then 2007, 2008, 2010, and lastly 2012, all at slightly differing abvs but generally around the 40-43% mark. The bottle I got was from 2010 and diluted to 40% abv.

(Image Source: @weixiang_liu)

The nose was quite intriguing as it reminded me of sarsaparilla root beer, herbaceous, mildly minty. The dominant scent was that of sweet williams pears which was a very unique profile for a demerara, and some varnish. Strangely there were nuances of sulphur too, similar to hard boiled eggs. Not what I was expecting of a 75 Demerara as there was nothing there that reminded me of one, except for the liquorice that started opening up after half an hour or so.

The front palate was a rather slow starter, generally unimpressive and flat at first, mostly that of 35 years of wood and bitters. The back palate and the finish was where things start to come alive as we saw some familiarity to other 75 Demeraras with light hints of liquorice and leather, followed by a bouquet of dark purple fruits, prunes, sweet molasses, a dash of coffee, and a slight dryness giving it that little bit more texture.

I can’t say with confidence that this was from the Port Mourant still because there was something about its profile that deviated from the usual. The dilution certainly led to some loss in depth and robustness, but nonetheless another great example of Demerara rums from the 70s.

Your occasional rum addict!

@weixiang_liu