Samaroli Demerara Dark Rum 1980

Samaroli Demerara Dark Rum 1980 is a vintage Guyanese single cask from the historic Italian bottler Samaroli, known for elegant, balanced releases reduced to a gentle proof. Distilled in 1980 and aged twenty years, this is an old and now scarce Demerara, the kind of long-gone vintage that has become hard to find and costly to buy.

Matured in ex-bourbon wood and bottled at 45%, the rum is heavy on oak. The nose brings oak, mineral, vanilla and molasses, while the palate keeps that oak going alongside vanilla, a crisp apple note and a slight rubber edge. The finish carries oak, vanilla and orange peel. The wood is very prominent, balanced by the vanilla and molasses sweetness that mark a classic old Demerara, with a faint mineral and rubber character adding interest. This is a purist, well-aged single cask, Samaroli letting an old vintage speak softly at a measured strength.