CDI Enmore (Versailles) 1988

Compagnie des Indes, the respected French bottler, drew this from a single cask of 1988 Enmore, here labelled under the Versailles plant that later housed the still. Enmore is the wooden Coffey, the last operating wooden continuous still in the world, lighter and more elegant than the pot still marques but still unmistakably woody. At 29 years and an unsweetened 48%, this is mature Demerara in a poised, approachable register.

The nose is fruity and elegant, leaning toward dried fruit, raisin and plum with vanilla and a soft spice, and the palate carries vanilla biscuit dough, dried fruit and gentle warmth, rounded by decades in oak. The finish runs dry with cedar, oak and a herbal wood note that marks the wooden Coffey character. Three decades of continental ageing have softened the spirit without flattening it, the cedar and pencil staying integrated rather than dominant. This rewards a patient palate, a finely balanced old Enmore that shows the elegant side of the heritage Guyanese stills.