Cadenhead‘s Port Mourant PDW 1972

Cadenhead is one of the great independent bottlers, and this 1972 Port Mourant is among its finest rum releases, a thirty-year expression of the double wooden pot still that defines old navy Demerara. Bottled unsweetened at cask strength, 53.1%, from a vintage now confined to auction, it is closed-era Guyana at its most venerable.

This is a lighter, more floral reading of Port Mourant than the oily standard, decades in the glass having drawn out elegance over brute force. The nose offers cereal, biscuits, dry young wood and a touch of old workshop, the palate brings biscuity solvents, fruit and bright lemon, and the finish stays layered with dried apricot and more biscuit. Floral and shortbread notes give it real poise, the alcohol cleanly integrated for the strength. It rewards slow sipping, an aged Port Mourant that hits a fine balance of maturity, balance and intensity.