Experts Corner: Wolfboy & the El Dorado Stills

[Capn Jimbo]

This week from the Expert's Corner:


What's the "Expert's Corner"?

This is where the commercial and faux commercial wannabees end up. These are just ordinary putzes who just happen to possess ego and time enough to put up a "rum website". They are almost never - well, never actually - qualified as real authorities. What they're really after is to gain attention, to get lots of freebies and/or to promote their rum business. In time, a bunch of monkeys come to regard this webmasterbater as an "expert", and here's the key - this individual now feels obligated to act the part.

They have painted themselves into the "Expert's Corner". This week it's the frozen Wolfboy who holds forth on the El Dorado's, which he seems to have confused with the car...

Artic Wolf: "I find the 12 is similar to the 21 and the 15 is similar to the 25. In each case the older version seems to be a refined version of the younger version, at least in terms of taste. When you finally try the 15, make sure you let me know what you think of it."

For some years, our frozen friend seems to have believed that the El Dorado's differ mostly in aging. Thus a 15 year tends to be considered more developed than the 12. Or the 8, and so on. To be fair, this more current quote indicates a relationship between the 12 and 21, and the 15 and 25.

Let's see...

12 year: entirely made with Coffey stills. A column stilled rum.
15 year: a strong pot still component, balanced by Coffey still distillate. Call it 50/50 (pot/column).
21 year: primarily a 4-column Savalle still output, with lesser amounts of pot and Coffey still rum. Call it 80/20 (column/pot)
25 year: primarily 4-column Savalle rum, with a bit of Coffey still and just a tad of wooden pot still output. Call it 85/15 (column/pot)

Be honest - there's really very little crossover between these four very different rums, from four very different combinations of stills. From light to heavy we might consider...

Four-column Savalle stills
Two-column Coffey stills (wood and metal)
Port Mourant wooden double pot still
Single wooden pot still

I won't reproduce the chart delineating the exact composition of each of the El Dorado rums, but suffice it to say that of the four different blends for these four years, the closest correlation is actually between the 15 and 21 year, with two of the three components of the 21 also appearing in the 15. Additionally both have pot still elements: the 21 with the least component being from a single wooden pot, and the 15 with a strong wooden pot still component.

Still the 21 is primarily a 4-column rum, while the 15 is primarily pot stilled. A very forced comparison might be made between the 12 and 25, and between the 15 and 21. The most intelligent approach is to realize these four rums are all made very differently, with four different sets of stills in four different blends and of four different ages.

Other than that, they're the same. Meanwhile it remains a mystery why our north of the border "reviewers" who together claim to have reviewed or made notes on over 400 rums, have yet to figure this out or to advise their unknowing readers.

[Capn Jimbo]

For the rest of us...



(Credit: Cocktails Old Fashioned)

Legend:

Goldenrod: "Dominant"
Green: "Included



(Credit: Cocktails Old Fashioned)

From these charts the differences in the El Dorados are made clear. No one should doubt that different stills, of different materials, in different locations, and of different sizes and contruction cannot make the same rum.

Please also note that most of these are old, sometime leaky stills and are in sometimes dilapidated buildings. DDL is building (or has by now built) a large modern column still. This information has been well known for years. No real reviewer should ever omit this information on any real discussion of the Demeraran rums.




*******
Special Note: The original and most complete article about these stills - to the best of my knowledge - was and is:

http://www.cocktailsoldfashioned.de/201 ... uyana-rum/

[da'rum]

Great chart.

Where did you locate that?

On a slight tangent and not to do with the chart, I've been getting the feeling for a while now that DDL and it's out put are on the verge of slipping to the dark side. I reserve judgement though.

[Capn Jimbo]

Nasty, nasty....


Here's the deal. At one time long ago and far way, Guyana was home to over 200 distilleries, each represented by a plantation "mark". As per Dave Broom in his terrific book "Rum" these "marks" were used to identify the plantation. Broom states that the Albion plantation became "AN", Port Mourant "PM", Uitvlugt (pronounced "eye-flat" "ICB/U", Enmore "EHP" and Blair "B" (inside a diamond). These are still used today.

In the chart reposted above you can see the letters still used today.

By 1972 only three remained (Enmore, Uitivlugt and Diamond) - all under the single control of DDL - Demeraran Distillers Limited who managed to save anumber of the old stills (estimated 14 stills) each capable of producing their original marks. These stills include metal and wooden pot stills, a double wooden pot still, metal and wooden Coffey stills, 4 column French Savalle stills, and one 5-column metal still (the newest).

The rhather new 5-column is said to produce light to heavy rums and neutral spirit (think Vodka), but you can be sure it is used mostly to produce light rums and GNS. The 4-column French Savalles are said to produce light to medium rums, but again would tend to be used for lighter distillate. Coffey stills first became famous for being able to produce high alcohol distillate continuously which of course, implies lighter product.

On the heavy side is the Port Mourant double wooden pot still (one pot still supplies the second pot still, the equivalent of double distillation). A group of old metal and wooden pot stills are used in the traditional fashion - we can assume as a stripping run and a spirits run. Pot stills produce heavy, flavorful spirit.

The chart (see above) indicates which marks/stills produce the rums in the blend for that product. The chart indicates the primary or dominant components, as well as the additional, lesser amounts of other marks.

Any poster who implies there is a linear relationship between the El Dorados of increasing age needs to cut back their dramming...


Listen to Dave Broom...

Barstool "experts" like Wolfboy and Lance, plus a few of the alpha monkeys over at the Shillery seem to feel the El Dorados to be variations on a profile or - heaven forbid - just aged versions of one another. In a word - mooseshit!

Per Broom: "You might expect the marks to be a variation on a theme, with overlapping flavors. Instead, each is distinct. There is a clear stylistic difference in them all - and there are nine from the Savalle still alone, out of the many.

Each provides a new glimpse into the past, , of how distillers used local materials and new technology, of intuitive distilling, of improvisations which, whether by design or chance, resulted in each plantation making its own variant."

This should put to bed the gross misconceptions of the Canadian predator/reviewers as well as the American zoo of monkeys. Broom also points out the extensive use of caramel by DDL prior to 1990, a trend that began changing in 1992 but may still exist to some extent.

If any reader has an opinion to offer on the use of caramel (or anything else), please approach the bench...

[Capn Jimbo]

How the Mounties see it...


Lance of Liquorature

1. El Dorado Single Barrel ICBU – As you now know ICBU refers to the still of former plantation Uitvlught, which currently uses a 4-column French Saville still. Still, Lance states "The El Dorado rum is made with the only wooden pot still remaining in the world, from Plantation Uitvlught..."!

2. El Dorado 5 Year: Although Lance only gets a woody for "double digit" rums aged 10 years or more, he sorta likes the 5 year against his better prejudice, er judgement. And while he goes on to pass along a handy history of Yesu Persaud, the Chairman of the company, he says nada - nothing - about how this rum is made.

3. El Dorado 25 Year: Ah, one of Lance's auto-erection, double digit, obscenely expensive rums. While he goes on, and on, and on about the history, the chairman and his preferences, the bottle, the difficulty of finding one, and his immense woodie upon doing so - once again - he says nada, nix, zero, nothing - about how it's made or with which stills. To his credit he notes a bit much caramel and burnt sugar (which is about the same thing).

4. El Dorado 21 Year: This time he is obsessing about the "cheap cardboard" box in which it is sold, its surprisingly low price ($100) for such a great rum (expressing his bias for extreme years and price), and once again notes caramel - and again - nothing about the stills and process.

5. El Dorado 15 Year: One of the Lancester's earlier reviews when he swore he'd never give ratings (he does now, and even believes they are balanced), and in which he again notes caramel and burnt sugar, and again - nothing about the stills and blends composing this rum.

6. El Dorado 12 Year: Lance makes sure that in all his Guyanese reviews to tell you that he spent quite some time in country, implying of course that this surely must give him an inside track on knowingness when it comes to this line. And after sharing his usual rambling regarding his state of mind, the weather and lost loves he actually - and for the first and only time - discusses the process!

Lance: "The thing is, as a rum in its own right, the 12 isn’t half bad. Made from molasses in the Enmore and Diamond coffey stills and blended with a lead spirit from the Port Mourant double pot still (the only wooden one still in existence, and which also makes the Single Barrel)"

But he still doesn't have it quite right. He names the Port Mourant double pot as the lead rum, when in fact the lead is shared with the Diamond metal Coffey still. And he fails to mention the 15 year also contains a share of single pot still distillate from the VSG (Versaille wooden single pot).


Bottom Line:

When discussing the El Dorados there are really two basic and key considerations. First, that knowing the stills and methods used to make that particular product and second, the presence of caramel and burnt sugar, if any, and to what extent.

What doesn't work is to treat this line like any other, for example Flor de Cana or Barbancourt. Barbancourt especially makes just one cane juice rum in one way. The differences between the 4 - 8 - 15 are simply and wholly due to aging. Distillers like Barbancourt can be incredibly informative when performing a vertical comparison to understand the effects of aging.

This simply cannot be done with the El Dorados. My own suspicion is that the commonalites may be due to factors other than aging alone, and having even less to do with the variable distillations and blends.

[Capn Jimbo]

Last but certainly not least...


Arctic Wolf:


1. El Dorado 5 year: The Wolf has actually been to Guyana, compliments of the distiller and a local merchant. This my friends, is a major freebie. He returned with his Brownie filled with tourist snapshots like: "Here I am looking at a waterfall... standing on a still... blowing heartily...". What any right thinking suckup needs to do, especially while in situ. As a result we get what appears to be a nice lead in as to how the 5 year is actually made:

Wolf: "Using a combination of old wooden stills in conjunction with modern stills and distilling techniques, Demerara Distillers Ltd. (DDL) has built a reputation for outstanding quality and consistent production."

And? And nothing, nada, about this rum. Maybe the 12?

2. El Dorado 12 Year: "Using a combination of old wooden stills in conjunction with modern stills and distilling techniques, Demerara Distillers Ltd. (DDL) has built a reputation for outstanding quality and consistent production.". Hey, wait a minute here! Isn't that exactly what he said about the 5? You bet your hairy ass it is. Well, how about the 15?

3. El Dorado 15 Year: "Using a combination of old wooden stills in conjunction..."?! Yup, the same cut 'n paste drivel. Really, this guy pumps out rum reviews like Henry Ford pumped out assembly line cars - any color you want, as long as it's black! But just before I was about to check out the copy for the 21, I read on and spied this...

Wolf: According to the DDL website, The El Dorado 15 Year Old Special Reserve Rum is a blend of selected aged rums (some as old as 25 years), from the Enmore and Diamond Coffey stills, the Port Mourant double wooden pot still, and the Versailles single wooden pot still. It is blended and aged in old bourbon oak casks.

Now this is actually a pretty decent description, except for the fact that he compares it to the 25 year, which is predominantly column-stilled. Let's move on...

4. El Dorado 21 Year: Here again, another seemingly good description: "The DDL Master Blender is credited with the creation of El Dorado 21-Year-Old Rum which uses a blend of rums selected from their world-famous stills, the Enmore (wooden Coffey still), the Versailles (single wooden pot still), and the Albion (Savalle still)." What he doesn't tell you - again - is that this rum is predominantly a column stilled rum, primarily from the four columns of the Albion French Savalle.

Still, an improvement except for the fact that he later compares this column and pot stilled rum with the 12 year, which is solely a column stilled product.

5. El Dorado 25 Year: This is ED's top of the line, but for some reason we are now back to the old "Using a combination of venerable old wooden stills in conjunction with modern stills and distilling techniques, DDL, has built a reputation for outstanding quality and consistent production." blather. For those who care, the actual makeup of the 25 year may be found above in the chart of El Dorado rums and their components.

6. El Dorado Single Barrel ICBU: Here the Artic one gets it right. He dispenses with the catch-all drivel and gets - accurately - to the point:

Wolf: "I consider this somewhat of an artisan offering which gives the rum aficionado a glimpse into the particular characteristics of Demerara rum from a particular still, in this case the Savalle Still."

Bravo! Now this is the kind of information readers need (and which has been available here for years), although he should also have added that the Savalle is a four column still most effective for lighter rums. He's trainable, at least for this one rum. BTW, it's interesting to note that Lance and the Wolf disagree on this one. Maybe. And last...

7. El Dorado Single Barrel PM Rum: Will wonders never cease? Yet another perfectly formed wolf dropping: "The original wooden pot still (the PM), is the only production still of its kind left in the entire world". Actually, I have reason to believe another double wooden pot still may also exist at Port Mourant, but this is unjustified nit picking. More important is the notion that these pot stills are used also for Pussers British Royal Navy Rum, which should provide a handy bellweather insofar as profile.


Bottom Line:

The Artic Wolf displays mixed results. With three of the El Dorado's (5-12-25) he fails to mention the specific stills used at all. With another (15) he misses one of the stills and fails to mention the predominant component of the blend. With another (21) he gets the stills right, but again fails to identify the predominant component(s). And finally, with the last two rums - both made from just one of the stills - he names the still but make no mention of the probable effect of that still.

Score (ten is best): 6 (below average) or "C-". He needs to name all the stills, all the time, and specify which are predominant, and last to speculate about how and why the blend works.

Frankly, I think the El Dorados are an interesting bunch, in that we have excellent information as to their makeup. This gives advanced taster the opportunity to see if they can detect the differences among them based on their predominant component(s). I do hope more "reviewers" take advantage of the chart...

More anon...