Rock & Rhum Diamond Versailles Still MDXC 2004

Rock & Rhum selected this 2004 Diamond as a single cask under the Versailles still character, the MDXC marque pointing to the robust, raw-wood side of Guyana rather than the cleaner Savalle workhorse. Certified unsweetened and bottled at 55.8%, it is a dry, woody expression built around the still.

Matured in ex-bourbon for eighteen years, it shows caramel, wood, leather and nuts on the nose, then wood, a gluey ester edge, caramel and a rounded body on the palate, finishing on pepper, coffee, leather and dark chocolate. The profile reads as textbook dry Demerara: plenty of oak, herbs and coffee with real intensity and warmth at the proof. There is no sweetness propping it up, just the still, the wood and the long ageing. A characterful, focused sipper for drinkers who like their Guyana firm, dry and timber-led.