Big Mama Rum Demerara Pedro Ximenez Finished 2002

Big Mama bottled this column-still Demerara from a 2002 vintage, fifteen years old and given a Pedro Ximenez finish before reduction to an easy 40%. Column-still Guyanese rum, made on the Diamond distillery's metal stills, is the lighter and more approachable face of Demerara, all molasses, toffee and light wood rather than oily pot-still funk.

A Pedro Ximenez cask is among the sweetest and richest of sherry types, and a finish in one would be expected to layer raisin, fig and dark sugar over that base. At 40% this reads as a softer, after-dinner style of Demerara. Whether sugar was added is not recorded, so the cask itself is likely doing much of the sweet, dessert-leaning work.