Enmore EHP 1996 El Dorado Rare Collection 21 Year Old 8004519

Enmore EHP 1996 El Dorado 21 Year Old

The El Dorado range was introudced by Demerara Distillers Ltd in 1992 with the lauch its now classic 15 year old. After the close working relationship between DDL and Luca Gargano’s Velier in the 2000s had significantly raised the profile of their distillery’s various historic stills, they introduced this premium El Dorado Rare Collection range in 2016. The series showcases small batch bottlings of its various cask marques, much as the esteemed Italian distributors had done in the decade prior.

This is the classic EHP marque, distilled on the Enmore wooden coffey still in the final years of production at its historical home.

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. Modelled almost exactly after the first continuous still patented by Aeneas Coffey in 1832, 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 also received the a single wooden pot still when the Versailles distillery closed in 1978. When Enmore was shuttered in 1994, both of these were moved to Uitvlugt, and are now in operation as “Heritage Stills” at Diamond, the last remaining rum producer in the country.