Versailles Enmore Demerara REV 1994 Valinch and Mallet 26y 52,5° 70cl

A pot demerara rum distilled on the Versailles single wooden pot still at Enmore.

The Enmore sugar estate was established by Edward Henry Porter in the early 19th century after he inherited and converted his father’s cotton plantation on the east bank of the Demerara river. Once one of many in the area, by the time the government in Guyana had begun to nationalise and consolidate the country’s rum production in 1974, it was one of only four remaining. The traditional still at Enmore was the historic two-column wooden coffey still, constructed back in 1880 and modelled almost exactly after the first continuous still patented by Aeneas Coffey in 1832. This however was distilled on the Versailles single wooden pot still, moved to Enmore from its eponymous distillery after its closure in 1974. It is constructed from Greenheart wood, which is native to Guyana and is mostly used in boat-building due to its ability to remain strong while constantly wet. The wood is also well suited to distilling, stripping spirit of sulphites in the same manner that copper does. Enmore was eventually closed by Demerara Distillers in 1994, and both stills were moved to Uitvlugt. Today they remain operational as the “Heritage Stills” at Diamond, the only remaining distillery in the country.

The whilst there is disagreement over exactly when Enmore distillery closed (with estimates ranging from 1993-1995) one of the more accepted accounts places its closure in April 1994, with its wooden coffey still and the Versailles still moved first to Uitvlugt and then to Diamond in 2000, where its styles are still produced today.

Based on that timeline this would be some of the last distillate produced prior to the relocation of the still sets.

Bottled by Valinch and Mallet in in 2020 at 26 years old.