Samaroli DDL Demerara Dark 2005

This Samaroli Demerara Dark 2005 is a single cask of Demerara Distillers stock, twelve years old and bottled at the house's favoured 45 percent. Samaroli is a historic purist bottler whose unsweetened, continentally aged single casks are prized for balance and elegance over sheer strength.

Matured in ex-bourbon wood, it noses on caramel, vanilla, brown sugar and prunes, with brown sugar, dried fruit, cocoa and a sweet edge on the palate, closing on pear, cocoa and mocha. The dark, brown-sugar character points to the heavier Demerara stills feeding the blend, though the sweetness here is barrel and distillate rather than added dosage, since this is an unsweetened independent bottling. At a moderate strength and gentle proof, it drinks as a smooth, cocoa-and-dried-fruit Guyanese rum that leans dessert-like without ever being cloying.