Precious Liquors Uitvlugt Rum 1990

Precious Liquors selects long-aged closed-era Guyanese casks, and this 1990 Uitvlugt is a single cask bottled at thirty-one years and 52.6%. Uitvlugt is the Savalle column marque, the refined, fruity and lightly spiced side of Demerara, and at this age and proof it shows a brighter, more aromatic face than the heavy wooden-still rums.

Matured in ex-bourbon, it opens with an unusual fruit-forward nose of bitter orange, apple, pear and green pepper, more orchard than tropical. The palate is firmer and more savoury, with barrel wood, smoke, black pepper and liquorice, and it tightens into an astringent finish that recalls the leaner end of long-aged Guyana. This is a drier, woodier Uitvlugt that asks for a little patience and perhaps a drop of water, suited to drinkers who value structure and spice over sweetness in their old Demerara.