Stefanie Holt and the range of El Dorado rums on taste
It was a real pleasure to welcome Stefanie to Nickolls and Perks once again for an enticing line-up of some of the World’s finest rums.
Stefanie is the International Brand Ambassador for El Dorado Rums and she treated us to an evening of education and anecdotes regarding rum in general, and of course, El Dorado in particular.
El Dorado 3 year old white
El Dorado 3 year old white was the first rum to be tasted.
Unusually, for such a young rum, it exhibits a smooth, creamy mouth feel, with an almost oily finish – a result of the charcoal filtering process the spirit undergoes. American oak barrels impart notes of vanilla, white chocolate and butterscotch. Recommended for mixing cocktails such as, Mojitos, Daiquirís and Piña Coladas.
£22.25 per bottle.
El Dorado 5 year old
Next we tried the 5 year old example, whose natural golden colour shows through because there is no filtering of the product. The woody flavours start to appear, there are hints of Christmas pudding – cloves, raisins, cinnamon, ginger. Some heat, not a full-mouth feel compared with the filtered 3 year old white rum. Recommended to mix with cola, for example to create a Cuba Libre.
El Dorado 8 year old
The last of the “mixer” rums was the 8 year old. This was described by Stefanie as a good “Tuesday night” rum, meaning, we think, that you could add a mixer or drink it straight, as there is more complexity with longer lingering flavours, and the rum itself is noticeably smoother.
This bridges the gap between the tall, thin bottles, generally used with mixers, and the squat “ship’s bottles” of the luxury range.
El Dorado 12 year old
The bottle shape, a tribute to the ship’s rum bottles used originally from the 17th century, distinguishes the luxury range from El Dorado. These are rums to sip and enjoy au nauturel, giving them the opportunity to reveal increasingly complex aromas and flavours as the age develops the spirit.
Stephanie pointed out that as the rate of evaporation is approximately twice that of the “Angels’ Share” applying to Scotch whisky during the barrel maturation process, (due to the warmer climate) a 12 year old rum compares in many ways to a Scotch whisky aged for 20-25 years.
Putting it thus, these rums seem incredibly good value…
The multi-award winning 12 year old was next on taste. Lush tropical fruit and spice nose with hints of honey and dark sugar. Round, mellow, full bodied palate with rich flavours of fruit and spice. The finish is delightful, elegant and dry.
“Hedonistic and well balanced” £35.25 per bottle
El Dorado 15 year old
We moved on to the most decorated of the Demerera Distillery’s offerings, the redoubtable 15 year old, which has won more awards than you can shake a stick at…including ‘Best Rum in the World’ for six years at the International Wine & Spirit Competition, Platinum Award at the Caribbean Rum Taste Test and 96/100 at the Chicago Beverage Tasting Institute with a special ‘Coinnoisseur’s Choice’ Award.
Specially selected aged rums, some as old as 25 years, from a combination of different wooden stills, it is blended and aged in old bourbon oak casks.
Full nose packed with dark coffee, candied orange, almonds, dark chocolate, pepper and vanilla. Beautifully rounded palate with a great spread of flavours: grilled tropical fruit with smooth oaky spice – silky, vibrant and moderately full-bodied. £45.95 per bottle
Our final destination was the 21 year old Special Reserve. Superbly described by the Beverage Tasting Institute of Chicago as, “A monumental aged rum that is one of the world’s greatest rum drinking experiences”
The Master Blender’s special recipe blends specially selected rums, oak aged for at least 21 years, from the Enmore wooden Coffey still, the Versailles single wooden pot still and the Albion Savalle still.
Tasting Notes:
Lush tropical fruit and spice nose with hints of honey and dark sugar. Round, mellow, full bodied palate with rich flavours of fruit and spice. This has many of the attributes of a fine cognac and is definitely one to savour, perhaps with some special friends…or at a Nickolls and Perks tasting! £79.95 per bottle.
El Dorado 21 year old
During the evening, we learnt the following points of interest:
Guyana = “land of many waters”, it is 10 times the size of Jamaica and 10% of its land area is given over to sugar cane production.
The Demerera River is so wide it contains an island bigger than Barbados!
Sugar used to be more valuable than gold – the rich would often flaunt their affluence of the sweet stuff by allowing their teeth to decay and blacken and proudly smiling to display the rotten result!
El Dorado clearly have a passion for continuing to produce World-Class rums, check out their awards here
We look froward to their next visit.
Next Tastings: Tomatin Single Malt Whisky Tasting Thursday 31st July 2014 £25.00 per ticket
and Vintage Champagne Tasting 8th Aug 2014 tickets £30.00 each