chocolate flavours of Versailles, but my nose and palate found more green fruit, lovely high fruity-floral tones, rich oiliness, soft round herbal notes, a growing hot spiciness and deep complexity, rare in 12-year-old whisky. A “double pot” from Port Mourant rounded out the trio. Slightly sweet with a cinnamon edge and just hints of licorice, it is remarkable how distinct this rum is from the others. But then the Port Mourant double pot still is also one-of-a-kind – the lyne arm from the first pot empties directly into the second where the spirit is redistilled. This remarkable double- pot setup dates to 1732. The sweetish nose and palate have overtones of rum funk, with bourbon-like barrels tones, soft vanillas and restrained caramels. Bananas, mangoes, pineapple and coconut dominate the mid-palate, while subdued peppery spices fade into fruit and gentle sweetness in the finish. As distinct as these stills are from each other, each is made from the ultra-hard greenheart wood that grows in abundance in Guyana. Wooden stills, of course, cannot be heated by direct fire, so each employs steam to boil the wash. And unlike copper, which radiates heat, wood offers more insulation so handles the spirit more gently, as production chief, Shaun Caleb explains. This helps boost ABV and retain heavy alcohols leading to a richer spirit. But how do you carve giant wooden pot stills out of wood so hard that common tools barely scratch it? Well, you don’t. Rather, the pots are more like giant barrels, made with greenheart staves bound tightly together with strong iron hoops. To differentiate them from Scottish-style copper pots, they are often called “vat stills.” A copper dome atop each vat directs the rising spirit into a copper lyne arm.
Different stills, identical wash, and the resulting rums couldn’t be more different from each other: • Enmore: blackstrap and pepper • Versailles: fruit and oil, and • Port Mourant: spices with licorice and cinnamon But this is WHISKY Explorer Magazine, so, beyond a masterclass in the influence of stills, DDL also makes whisky. Its Diamond Club Black Label Malt Whisky blends Inver House Malt Whisky with DDL cane spirit. It’s a fabulous dram for the $5.00 duty-free price tag. Its malty nose shows elements of Indian spices, Demerara sugar and new spirit, while hints of vanilla and green and ripe fruit bolster the palate. Add an ice cube and a friend to share it with, and you just might be tempted to have another.
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the whisky explorer magazine
WINTER 2024
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