Bristol Port Mourant 1980

Bristol Classic Rum is a long-running English specialist in closed-distillery bottlings, and this Port Mourant 1980 is a twenty year old Demerara at 46 percent, drawn off the double wooden pot still that defines the heaviest Guyanese profile. Bristol built its name on liquid history of exactly this kind, mostly purist bottlings of long-gone vintages.

From molasses through the PM still and finished in port wood, the nose offers leather, polish, barrel and red fruit, with young wood, raisin and apple on the palate, closing woody, hot, spiced and peppery. The nose offers more layers than the palate, with the alcohol well integrated and the oily Port Mourant power coming through. This is an old, dark and fruity PM in the classic mould, a piece of Demerara history from a bottler that made closed-estate rum its specialty.