May 102014


Other notes
- Distilled in Coffey still in August 1973 and bottled in April 2005
- Velier, in 2004, bought a stake in DDL (per their website) – Luca notes in his interview with Cyril of DuRhum that it was in 2003.
Updates
- There is a slightly younger version of Skeldon distillate, the 1978 edition – also bottled by Velier – which I have not managed to source as yet (though I finally tried it at the Tasting of the Century in 2018). It was selling on Ebay as of September 2014, for €800 and ended up fetching €1200. In January 2016, another 1978 was on offer for €2000, and by June 2021 the price at auction was £9,500. The 1973 was, by this time only ever offered once on the RumAuctioneer site, and in July 2021 was being bid up past £7,000 with a week left to go
- As of 2015, Velier no longer had the right to select barrels from DDL’s warehouses as DDL moved to issue “Gargano rums” by themselves under the brand of the “Rare Collection”.
- In October 2015 I re-tasted this rum, and noted a marked vanilla undercurrent appearing after it stood for half an hour. This was not substantial enough to lessen the rum’s value – it was too well made for that – but it was there. I thought of rescoring at 93 but then compromised by making note of the fact for interested readers.
- By 2021 DDL had released their own Skeldon rum as part of the rares, and 1423’s SBS range had also done a few.
dear Ruminski,
thank you!
may i know the ranking of your top 10 rums?
if i would like to send you ssame samples where i can send them?
ciao
luca
Glad u liked it, even if i knew it 😉
And what about the empty glass ? Have you ever found such a rum which continue to smell that long ? It talked for a week here, amazing.
I hope u could try the 78
totally agree Cyril. Now I won’t wash my Skeldon 73 glass anymore after drinking 🙂
Grear Rum indeed.
tried for the fourth time last afternoon, after lunch. Amazingly, before dinner I still had the taste in my mouth.
It really has a taste and a body that are fantastically long-lived. I took some flak for scoring this rum ahead of other old favourites, but man, you just can’t argue with its quality.
Hi Ruminsky,
I had the pleasure to meet Daniele Biondi during a wine event in my town, Padova. There was a Velier stand with 4 “monsters”:
Diamond 1999 aged 15 yo in Tropics
Uitvlugt 1997 aged 17 yo in Tropics
Diamond and Port Mourant 1995
Enmore and Port Mourant 1998
On top, I brought my Skeldon 73, and a friend brought a Caroni 1974 (velier) and Port Mourant 1974.
We had the most intense rum experience ever!
I suggest to buy while still available the Enmore and Port Mourant 1998, blended by George Robinson from Demerara. Maybe will sit very close to the UF30E in your ranking
CHeers Pietro
I do indeed have the ENM-PM 1998, and it is as good as you say. I just have to put together my notes and write up…probably when I get back from Christmas holidays
Looking very much forward to that review! I tasted it at a Velier Tasting with Luca a month ago, and it totally stole the show among some other very great rums.
Oh how I wish I would be able to find a bottle of this tiny marvel! 🙂
If anyone should be up for sending a sample my way I would be more than happy to pay the shipping costs and then some!
Hi Henrik where are you based? Any trip to Italy in the near future? Consider a stop in Pauda… in February I should have both Skeldon opened and we can choose another bottle to open together 🙂
That would be awesome! 🙂 I guess I’ll have to convince my family to go to Northern Italy sometime soon 😀