Labourdonnais 5 yo Batch 1 (49.8%, That Boutique-y Rum Company, Mauritius, PX cask, 1200 bottles)
Labourdonnais is a relatively newish (2006) distillery from Mauritius. This was made from pure cane juice, distilled in a column still and matured full term in PX cask. Colour: copper. Nose: lots of gingerbread, wee touches of lighter fluid, hot brake pads, some soft embrocations, coffee liqueur, cocktail sugar syrups and some drops of assorted of cooking oils. Gets increasingly grassy with time and some notes of green olive. Mouth: rather sharp, some slightly acrid and pushy woody notes, green pepper, rubber, tarmac, black pepper, smoked paprika and a slightly clumsy sweetness. Finish: short, slightly bitter, burnt brown sugars and roasted root vegetables. Comments: I preferred the nose to the palate, a tad rough and disjointed for me.
SGP: 661 - 73 points.

Mount Gay Select Blend 7 yo (54%, OB for The Whisky Exchange, Barbados, 2400 bottles, 2018)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: pleasingly rich and polished at first nosing. Quite a bit of boot polish, coconut milk, lemon rind and an easy, exotic sweetness. Hints of sawdust and more coconut notes. The sweetness is pleasantly natural despite these wee sawdusty notes. With water: greener, fatter, more medicinal, earthier and with some nice notes of black olive and cinnamon. Mouth: good deliver, syrupy in texture, sweet coconut and some assertive spiciness. Green pepper, olive oil, hints of brine and some camphor. With water: develops nicely with these notes of sweet mango chutney, light embrocations, vegetable oil and some more grassy and earthy notes. Good weight and richness still. Finish: medium and with quite a bit of white pepper, lemongrass and yet more coconut. Comments: Very good, the kind of rum you could sip or mix quite happily I think.
SGP: 651 - 84 points.

Chairman’s Reserve 13 yo 2006/2019 (56%, St Lucia Distillers Ltd for Royal Mile Whiskies, St Lucia, bourbon, 286 bottles)
This one was produced in a Vendome pot still, which is a kind of still which features a traditional pot base combined with a column. It was also mature full term in St Lucia. Colour: ruby/amber. Nose: vibrant, fresh and gently medicinal with lots of mashed banana, sultana, prune jelly and lightly caramelised muscovado sugar. Also some pleasing hints of bicycle tyre, brake fluid and a wee funky tang of fermenting fruits. Excellent! With water: leaner, drier, more complex with some earthy tobacco notes, cane sugar, gauze, embrocations, seawater, green olive and plaster. Mouth: nice arrival on brown sugar, pulpy exotic fruits, more bananas - caramelised this time - bandages, lime juice and quite a bit of funky sweetness. Some bitter orange and lemon cordial in the background too. With water:  more cohesion, again a tad drier and more punchy. More medicinal, more complex, some soft spiciness rising up; overall a greater sense of balance and power. Finish: long, bready, rich, more caramelising brown sugars, bandages, ink, dried herbal notes and some crystallised exotic fruits. Superb! Comments: I find this extremely good. Walks a wonderful tightrope between sweet and dry with a lovely evolution once water is added. The nose in particular is very satisfying. Great selection by the folk at RMW!
SGP: 642 - 88 points.

Diamond (Versailles) 14 yo 2004/2019 (56%, Thompson Brothers for Nauticus & Royal Mile Whiskies, Guyana, bourbon barrel, 250 bottles)
This one comes from the famous Versailles single wooden pot still. Nauticus is a newish and excellent bar in Leith. If you’re in Edinburgh I would encourage you to visit. They to tremendous cocktails and always have a short but well curated beer selection on tap. Not to mention a healthy whisky gantry. You might even bump into yours truly as it is effectively my local - but don’t let that discourage you. Colour: straw. Nose: grassy, petrolic, austere and rather pure. Lots of embrocations, crushed seashells, olives in pickling juices and cornichons. There’s also some slightly gassy and vegetal notes. With water: opens up impressively with water, gets very grassy, peppery and earthy with notes of metal polish, gravel and crushed cactus. Also something slightly sweaty and animalistic. Mouth: surprisingly easy arrive with lightly citric esters while underneath it’s also rather rubbery, funky, earthy and tarry. More bandages, elastoplasts, gauze and olive oil diluted with seawater. Also quite flinty as well. With water: again this rather rubbery, sweaty edge - which doesn’t sound nice but is. Fur, black olives, wintergreen, vapour rubs and notes akin to fermenting lemons and mechanical oils. Finish:  good length, rather grassy, oily, slightly tarry, medical and getting increasingly salty and austere. Comments: Probably a tad difficult at times with this austere profile, but it’s charismatic and high quality stuff no doubt.
SGP: 372 - 85 points.

Uitvlugt 21 yo 1997/2019 (49.1%, Kintra Spirits Rum Collection, Guyana, cask #6, 113 bottles)
Not much could go wrong here I suspect… Colour: gold. Nose: this typically beautiful and deep concentration of embrocations, bandages and seawater. All shades of olive, brine cut with olive oil, sardines and old oily bicycle chains sprayed with WD40. Beyond that there’s also some fresh citrus fruit, chopped parsley, air freshener and something like Midori melon liqueur. But really it is the coastal and medical combinations that really stand out proudest here. Mouth: a funny but rather fabulous mix of kippers, brine and brown bread studded with olives and rosemary. I love how you get some very pronounced flavour combinations in the best rums. More bandages, plasters, ointments and rock pool water. Finish: long, medical, lemony, slightly earthy and with a very light medical sweetness then a rich and bready aftertaste. Comments: excellent, we’re extremely close to the 90 mark here.
SGP: 472 - 89 points. 

Caroni 2000/2018 ‘Navy Rum Extra Strong’ (51.4%, La Maison du Whisky & Velier 100th Anniversary, Trinidad)
Colour: orange amber. Nose: deep, leathery and spicy. Lots of strong ginger, hot paprika, root beer, some darker chocolate tones, heavy tobacco notes, black pepper, camphor and some quite heavy tarry notes. Damp, animalistic, fat and earthy - some black olives too. I find this heavier, slightly drier style very good and more complex than the lighter Caroni. With water: softer, more cinnamon, camphor, hessian, putty, quite a lot of dried herbs and now touches of anchovy paste and more umami and saline qualities. Very good! Mouth: lots of dry, fat medicines, bitter herbal extracts, natural tar, a powerful earthiness, cured gamed meats, black pepper and an increasingly autolytic and rounded bready quality. The strength works very well here at balancing the more punch aspects of the distillate. With water: the texture has thickened slightly and there’s more rubber, more earth, some soot, plastic, pot pourri, strong black tea and some grippy tannins. Finish: long, leathery, spicy, bready, earthy, savoury and with a strong umami character. Comments: There’s a great tension between complexity and power here that has required quite an impressive balancing act. Worth trying.
SGP: 472 - 88 points.

Caroni 26 yo 1993/2019 (50.7%, 1423 World Class Spirits ‘Single barrel selection’, Trinidad, barrel, 239 bottles)
This one by Danish importer, retailer and bottler 1423. It’s molasses distilled through a column and then tropically aged until 2008. Apparently nicknamed ‘the beast’. Colour: reddish coffee. Nose: extremely concentrated and extractive in style, you can almost feel the top of the liquid bristling with splinters. However, it’s also quite alluring with these notes of toasted fennel, crushed black pepper, mothballs and fresh paint. Showing this nice mix of medicines, spices and some slightly leathery and meaty tones. With water: turpentine, putty, stewed orange peels, cloves, smoked mint, camphor, vapour rubs and more rather extreme and dried out medical notes. Mouth: ooft! Extremely bitter, concentrated and highly extractive. Pure graphite, strong black coffee with chilli powder, very strong, rather tannic black tea, burnt brown sugar, salted caramel, bicycle inner tube rubber, burnt fennel seeds. Ok, ok, I agree, it’s a beast. With water: still extremely burnt, bitter, extractive and riddled with rather aggressive wood spices. Like chewing coffee grounds, burnt brisket ends and wood char (I’m sure there will be some of you out there who will adore this!) Rather tough for me I’m afraid. Finish: Long, woody, quite a bit of smoked paprika, burnt cumin seeds, wood char and bitter, tannic tea. Comments: It’s not my style of rum at all I’m afraid. The wood is just too extreme, to the point that you really loose balance. However, I’m aware this style is very much an acquired taste and some aficionados will love it. So, please feel free to take my score with a large bushel of charcoal!
SGP: 483 - 76 points.

Enmore 24 yo 1990/2015 (61.2%, Our & Spirits, Guyana, cask #20, 178 bottles)
Distilled in a pot still, presumably the wooden Versailles still which was in use at Enmore in 1990 before going on to Uitvlugt and finally to Diamond where it now resides. From a German retailer and bottler, although not too sure if they’re still active as their website appears to be down at time of writing.  Colour: pale gold. Nose: austere but surprisingly approachable considering the strength. Lots of raw cactus, cut grass, crushed aspirin, mineral salts, lime juice and chopped green asparagus. Quite lean and chiselled in profile which feels excellent, if somewhat unusual. With water: rather more fragrant, showing notes of fabrics and linens with green tea, faded petrol notes, white sourdough bread, chamomile tea and seawater. Mouth: extremely powerful and hugely bready. Lots of pure brown bread, rye, soda bread, scone mix, wholemeal flour mixed with brown sugar, elastoplasts, clay, ointments, bandages, ink and vase water. There’s even a slight hint of rubber erasers. Quite brutal, big and unusual. With water: still rather bready and doughy, but it feels more cohesive and balanced with a return to these rubber, petrol and lime juice flavours. Finish: long, earthy, extremely vegetal, lighter fluid, tyre rubber, more brown bread and bandages. Comments: It’s a pretty tough and unyielding style that is undeniably on the austere side of things. The kind of spirit that makes you work to get to know it. However, despite the difficulty, we’re a million miles away from the crass sugared crap in the supermarkets and undeniably tasing some pretty historic, old school rum. I think you probably just have to be in the mood.
SGP: 462 - 86 points.

Enmore 25 yo 1990/2015 (58%, Cave Guildive, Guyana, bourbon)
Another from the Versailles still. Colour: pale gold. Nose: similar but a notch sweeter which makes all these big vegetal, medical and bready qualities merge a little more seamlessly and globally feel easier and more ‘open’ as a result. A few whiffs of industrial cleaning fluid, soft tarry aspects, fermenting fruit notes, banana baked in brown sugar and bread dough. With water: some coconut and pineapple, more herbal, banana, lime and wild flowers. Mouth: herbal cough medicines, spiced exotic fruit teas, jasmine, chamomile, herbal cocktail bitters, plasters, gauze, ink and pastis. With water: more salty, umami and ‘brothy’ with these notes of liquid seasoning, bouillon, camphor and crushed grass. More aspirin, lime juice, sugar syrup and putty. Finish: long, rather bready, vegetal, earthy, medical and tarry. Comments: I prefer it a notch to the previous one. There’s a little more fruity sweetness about it that knits everything together. Still quite a demanding and very specific style though.
SGP: 562 - 87 points.

Fredrick Smith Fine Old Jamaica Rum (30 under proof, Aston Model Brewery, -/+ 1930s)
One of many such bottlings produced in the first half of the 20th century for independent British wine and spirit merchants. In this case a Birmingham brewery called Aston Model, which also sold other imported wines and spirits. Colour: gold. Nose: pure funk! Seawater, petrol, bandages, massively overripe exotic fruits, lemon juice mixed with brine, animal furs and a rather brutal tarriness. 40%? Really? This feels brilliantly beastly. With water: just looking at the viscosity there’s no way in hell this is 40%. Thrillingly punchy esters now, brown sugars, bandages, rotting fruits, sardines, rubber, petrol, squid ink… a ruthless, brutal but gorgeous wee monster! Mouth: holy hell! Ok, I don’t know who was responsible for printing ’30 u.p.’ on the label but their descendants will be hearing from my lawyers! This must be approaching 70% abv! Seriously! Fermented fruit salad juices, rubber fishing wellies, natural tar extract, paraffin and workshop grease. I think water is necessary… with water: immensely fat, greasy, oily, saline, estery and prickling with sea salt, camphor, tar, pine resin and things like mint and juniper. Totally mental rum. Finish: superbly long, chewy, glistening with pulpy esters, smoked exotic fruit jam, olive oil mixed with olive juices, tar, mercurochrome and bitumen. Comments: What the hell was this! Was the strength a misprint? A 1930s tax dodge? An attempt to kill off some customers? Anyway, what an incredible spirit. Makes most contemporary Islay’s look like S Club 7. On the subject of Islay though, one thing I would add is that this remains rather close to many of the best contemporary Hampdens for example. Whereas the distance between 1930s Scottish malts and their current siblings remains equivalent to several rather chunky galaxies.
SGP: 473 - 92 points.

Hampden 35 yo 1983/2019 (55.3%, Valinch & Mallet, Jamaica, cask #19-3501R, 237 bottles)
A super high ester ‘HGML’ make, which stands for ‘Hampden George MacFarquhar Lawson’ and is around 1000-1100 g/hlpa (grams per hectolitre of pure alcohol) Colour: gold. Nose: thick, vibrant and superb fresh. The age gives a kind of polished sheen to the esters. Concentrated seawater, smoked olive oil, natural tar, bandages soaked in antiseptic and olive juices. The whole feels extremely fat, textural and buoyant with vibrancy and power. Some notes of preserved lemon, ginger and even something like spiced carrots funnily enough. With water: hugely tarry, rubbery, salty and filled with a fug of diesel fumes, green peppercorns in brine, herbal toothpaste and smoked mint. Mouth: magnificently textural - to the point of being palpably greasy. While also showing wonderfully dense, ester-ridden exotic fruits. Smoked lemons, overripe mango, charred pineapple, star fruit, brine, lime juice, pickling juices, roasted vegetables, olive tapenades and many notes of fish paste and dried herbs. These Hampdens are almost unlike any other spirits I would say. With water: fermenting soy sauce, miso broth, dried seaweed, camphor, paraffin, salted treacle, molasses, roof pitch and pickled herring. Finish: superbly long, saline, resinously smoky, Thai curry spices, fermenting vegetables, tar liqueur and sugar cocktails, anthracite embers and many more fishy and pickle juice notes. Comments: Sublime and totally singular. Power, freshness, magnificent complexity and, perhaps easy to overlook at times but so essential to its DNA: fun! Leaves you with a big grin on your face.
SGP: 563 - 92 points.

Hampden 35 yo 1983/2019 (58.9%, Rum Artesanal, Jamaica, cask #6, 322 x 50cl bottles)
Almost certainly from a sibling cask to the V&M. Colour: gold. Nose: the same, but perhaps a little dirtier. That is to say, more towards coal smoke, engine grease, tool boxes, diesel fumes and oily rags. Similarly full of seawater, anchovies in olive oil, capers in brine, natural tar extract, animal fat, caraway and pickled olives. Brilliant, once again. With water: gets more animalistic, coal smoky, carbolic, tarry, greasy and dundery. Things like bath salts, mutton broth, lime juice and cured ham. Mouth: hugely concentrated, fatty, oily and with these really trill top note esters. Fermenting banana, flambeed brown sugar, tar liqueur, herbal cough medicines, old hay bails, smoked mint and something like charred plasticine. With water: superb concentration and power now. More direct, more punchy, more ‘purely’ saline and with this wonderful fusion of natural tar, rubber, black pepper and olive juices. Finish: long, getting extremely herbal and full of putty, plasticine, coal tar soap, lanolin, vapour rubs, pickled onions and medical embrocations. Comments: This one is a notch drier I’d say, but overall it’s still the same totally bonkers, joy-inducing level of quality.
SGP: 463 - 92 points.