Beenleigh Artisan Distillery 13 Years Old The Duchess Cask 38 63.4% 2007

Professional reviews

BOW (88)

10 Years Oceanian Aging

When we were contacted by Beenleigh’s master distiller Steve Magarry if we were interested in releasing a Beenleigh we where instantly excited about this. It’s not the typical country when thinking about rum but as a matter of fact it is one of the oldest in the world.
They have their roots in Guyana and when they started in the old days on a riverboat most of their workers where from Guyana!

We came across this particular cask and we are very excited about this release. This definitely a edition anyone should try.
The Platypus is actually swimming ion front of the river the distillery is using for its water when distilling.

OTHER (87)

Maltsfascination.com:

Sniff:
Weirdly funky with paint stripper and oak. Sweet sugarcane, quite chemical, but also with some red fruits, and apricot.

Sip:
The palate isn’t too sharp with some warm-up (as in, you should work up to this). Peppery heat, chemical paint stripper, but other things too. Fruits, grassy notes of sugarcane. Apricot, cherries and strawberries.

Swallow:
The finish is more typical of good rum, a bit sweeter. More herbaceous than sweet, but all on steroids.

While this paint-stripper stuff sounds negative, it actually is not. It does remind me a little bit of the gentler St. Lucia rums, and those are quite lovely. It’s a bit like peated whisky differs from unpeated whisky.

All in all this is quite a lovely drink, and because of it’s history and rather unique origins (yes, I know Bundaberg rum exists) it makes it all the more interesting.