El Dorado The Last Casks (Black) 1998

Part of El Dorado's Last Casks series, this is an official Demerara Distillers bottling of long aged Enmore, distilled in 1998 and matured twenty-four years. Unusually for the El Dorado name, it is certified unsweetened, a dry counterpoint to the sugared standard range.

Matured in ex-bourbon oak and bottled at 50.3%, it leans dark and tannic, with chocolate, coffee, dried fruit, leather and toasted oak, finishing woody with a slightly bitter, orange tinged edge. This is the wooden-Coffey Enmore character given decades to deepen, then left without dosage so the wood and fruit speak plainly. Best approached as a slow, attentive sipper, it offers a glimpse of dry, old Guyana from the distillery's own cellars, and a reminder that stock like this is finite.