Diamond The Duchess 20 Years Old Guyana Armagnac Finish Cask 27 50.8% 1998

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (80)

This baby from the Wooden Coffey still, a.k.a. Enmore if I’m not mistaken. It spent eight years in ex-Armagnac wood, for the better or… the worse, let’s see (with mucho caution).

Colour: gold.

Nose: possibly the lightest kind of Demerara/Diamond rum. Orange blossom, white chocolate, cranberry juice, perhaps a drop of green walnut liqueur, more orange blossom, and an Armagnacness that I cannot quite detect with much certainty. Perhaps this fistful of golden sultanas? With water: lighter yet but in a way, nicer. I enjoy hay in my spirits, while there’s quite a lot of hay in there. Notes of PIneau, or Rivesaltes, or Muscat de Lunel. Whatever.

Mouth (neat): rather light, with a little scented soap at first – nothing bad – and this feeling of crunching a church candle. Then rather orange jam and Jaffa cakes. With water: rather similar.

Finish: medium, still similar.

Comments: I’m not too sure, honest. They say grape and grain don’t work, not sure grape and cane work any better. Some very good sides though, but we were flying so much higher with The Duchess’ latest Caroni 1998, for example!

Gal Granov (84)

Nose: very nice entry with soft grape notes, vanilla and a hint of apple and white wine. further nosing reveals sweeter notes of Sultana, boiled sweets and maybe a hint of flower petals. quite nice and not very Rum-y if you ask me – the 8 long years of Armagnac finish did affect the liquid quite profoundly, if i might say so.

Palate : more grape and desert wine, hint of orange peel, grapefruit pith, Sultana and and more orange marmalade.

Finish : grape, orange peel, icing sugar

A very nice Rum this one is. Quite different, with a lot of grape and wine, notes. Highly drinkable stuff, very likable even if you’re not a die hard Rum sipper.

Words of Whisky (84)

leblogaroger.eu:

Concerning this Diam … er this Enmore, particularity, it will have been transferred in a barrel containing Armagnac before that and there will remain still 8 years.

Titrating 50.8%, this juice of 20 years rather clear should promise a lot of fruit ….

So, what will this grape / molasses mix give us? We had already tasted peat and grapes, it was quite special all the same, let’s see what we reserve this one!

Color
Straw, really clear one.

Nose
The first nose is quite strange, on the pritt glue and vanilla in particular. Fortunately, the result is more logical with a lot of fruit including orange and pineapple … Few woody traces and an alcohol rather present.

Over time, the nose turns more towards something vegetal, minty with a “chartreuse” side or old liquor. Something of the style in any case.

Palate
Vanilla, grapes, glue pritt again … a very oily, sweet, syrupy appearance like a kind of very mellow white wine.

It’s fruity too, with apple, apricot and chocolate but not bitter, more bold as white in fact.

It’s quite special and far from the idea that we have an Enmore strangely …

Very special, not bad but can be too “sweet” for my taste and not enough demerara

Where does this idea of ​​putting an Enmore into an armagnac shaft come from?

He would have stayed there for the last 8 years of his life, this is rather strangely long.

In addition, it was swayed in this barrel when it was already 12 years of aging .. it seems strange to me to make this decision with a rum already so old.

Did they wanted to hide something wrong with this cask ? In any case, it’s not bad but it remains … strange, it is the word

BOW (89)