Adelphi Diamond PM 2002

Adelphi, the Scottish house better known for whisky, selected this 2002 single cask of Diamond rum bearing the Port Mourant marque. PM is the heaviest and most polarising of the Demerara profiles, the double wooden pot still that gives oil, anise and dark fruit, and this bottling shows its drier, more austere face. At nineteen years it has taken on considerable oak, and it is offered at full cask strength without reduction.

Distilled from molasses and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it noses on dried fruit, wood, roast and a glue like ester note that signals the PM character. The palate is dry and toasted with more dried fruit and timber, leading to a herbal, dry finish. At 59.5% it is a serious, slow sipping rum that benefits from rest in the glass and a little water to coax out the leather, confectionery and papaya that sit beneath the wood. Unsweetened and uncompromising, it is built for those who already know the marque.