Angel's Share Title
When considering rums to review, it is always interesting to try something new, but sometimes it is good to just select a rum that you have seen at your local stores many times and have never gotten around to evaluating. This was the case with this review, as I was familiar with the product but had never sat down and given it my undivided attention in a testing environment.
The El Dorado line is created by the Demerara Distilling Company in Guyana. They harvest sugarcane grown along the banks of the Demerara River and use it to produce sugar, then they take the molasses and use it to make their rum lines. Using their own proprietary yeast strain, they ferment the molasses a minimum of 24 hours before using one or more of their historic stills to create their rums. The El Dorado 15 year old rum blend is created using marques from five of their stills -the EHP Wooden Coffey still, the Metal Coffey still, the Port Mourant Double Wooden Pot Still, and the Versailles Single Wooden Pot Still. The rums in the blend were aged for a minimum of 15 years in used oak barrels and blended down to 40% ABV.
Appearance
On the shelf the El Dorado 15 was easy to spot with its black and gold box with the parchment-colored centerpiece declaring “Aged 15 Years.” The 750 ml bottle inside has a squat custom design reminiscent of a classic naval bottle design whose tint conceals the color of the rum. The plastic cap secures a synthetic cork to the bottle and is enclosed with a black and gold El Dorado branded wrap. The rum, when poured into the tasting glass, holds a dark mahogany color with bright chamois highlights. Swirling the liquid creates a thin band that quickly swells and begins releasing waves of long, thick legs down the side of the tasting glass. This stage lasts for a few minutes before the band is little more than a ring of residue around the glass.
Nose
The initial pour filled the air with vanilla, citrus, and smoky oak notes. After the glass had rested, I discovered additional notes of roasted almonds, nutmeg, dark cocoa, and Sumatra coffee with light fruit notes drifting in at the end of the experience.
Palate
The rum presents a strong caramelized vanilla/toffee note up front balanced by an array of toasted oak spices—allspice, mace, and black pepper. There is an underlying sweetness to the rum that forms the baseline and brings out the coffee and cocoa notes from the aroma. During the evaluation, the fruit flavors manifested at different times as orange zest, grilled pineapple, cooked banana, prunes, and raisins. The alcohol pop is barely perceptible as the wood spice notes take over, forming a long, sweet finish.
Review
In 2020, Demerara Distilling changed some of their production methods and removed the use of caramel during their maturation process. They now only use E150 for color consistency with their rum line. While the flavor profile is sweet, it is not overwhelmingly so at any given point and seems to balance the oak notes instead of burying them like the original version. There is an interesting complexity to this rum, and while I have tried it a few times over the years in both its incarnations, I enjoy this updated version more due to the depth of oak flavors and fruit notes and the overall complexity of the blend. It is easy to recommend this rum as a dessert sipping rum, but it also pairs well with grilled beef and vegetable dishes.
