Velier Uitvlugt (Port Mourant) MPM 1990

A Port Mourant 1990 from Velier, distilled at the Uitvlugt site and bottled by the Genoa house behind the most prized old Demeraras. It carries the Port Mourant marque, the oily, liquorice-laden recipe from the double wooden pot still that defines the heaviest end of Guyana's range, here matured in cooler European conditions rather than the tropics.

Maturated from molasses and finished in port wood at a formidable 66%, it noses on apple, marzipan, spice and young wood, then delivers spice, a brown-sugar sweetness, barrel and herbs, the finish staying spicy, woody and brown-sugared, with anise, liquorice and citrus rounding out the classic continental PM register. Bottled at cask strength and unsweetened, it is a powerful, wood-forward Port Mourant that demands water to tame the alcohol, the still's character intact even at this strength. One for drinkers already at home with full-proof Demerara.