Famille Ricci Uitvlugt L’Exception 1992

Famille Ricci Uitvlugt L'Exception 1992 is a single cask Demerara from the closed Uitvlugt estate, a pot still expression bottled at cask strength by the French house Famille Ricci. At 32 years from a 1992 vintage, this is a deeply aged example of a lost-estate marque, the kind of finite Guyana rum whose stocks only diminish.

Bottled at 56.4%, the rum carries the weight of its years. The nose is dominated by almond and nut with a great deal of wood, and you can tell by smell and taste alone that this is old spirit. The palate stays nutty and woody, dry and tannic, before a very long finish that holds the timber for ages. The strength still stings a touch despite the decades in cask. This is an austere, wood-forward Uitvlugt for drinkers who prize age and dryness, a powerful old single cask with no sweetness to soften the oak.