Enmore 21 years 1986 Silver Seal Whisky Company bottled 2007

Lot presentation

Enmore 21 years 1986 Silver Seal Whisky Company bottled 2007

The wine

A 21 year old Demerara rum (Guyana) distilled in 1986 and bottled in 2007 by Silver Seal. This rum was produced at the Enmore distillery using the wooden Versailles pot still, which was moved to Enmore after the distillery of the same name closed in 1974. The Versailles still is built from Greenheart wood, used for building ships due to its water-resistance and for stills due to its ability to remove sulphuric compounds like copper from its vapours. The still is now kept at Diamond, the last distillery still operating in the country. Silver Seal was founded in 2000 by Ernesto Mainardi—also the founder of Sestante—and bought in 2010 by Massimo Righi, the owner of Whisky Antique.

The Enmore sugar plantation was set up in the early 19th century by Edward Henry Porter on the banks of the Demerara River. When the Guyanese government nationalized the production of rum in 1974, it was one of the last distilleries still in operation, alongside Diamond and Uitvlugt. The two wooden Coffey stills built from Chlorocardium Rodiei (Greenheart)—a wood generally used for shipbuilding due to its good water resistance and which offers properties similar to copper for purifying sulphur compounds—date back to the 1880s and are based on the model invented by Aeneas Coffey in 1832. They were transferred to Uitvlugt when the distillery closed in 1994, then to Diamond when Uitvlugt closed in 1999. This was also the case for the Enmore wooden pot still that Enmore had recovered after the distillery of the same name closed in 1978.