Skeldon SWR 1978 Velier 27 Year Old

One of a series of legendary bottlings from the brief but beautiful period (2004-2015) when Velier owned a small stake in Demerara Distillers Ltd (DDL), which afforded Luca Gargano privileged access the warehouses and his pick of casks to bottle.

 

The Skeldon plantation closed in 1960 and unlike some of the other distilleries being shuttered around this time, its stills did not survive. The production of the style associated with the distillery did however, at Uitvlugt. The distillery’s four-column Savalle still is incredibly versatile, today producing nine different marques, of which the Skeldon “SWR” continues to be one.

Following the closure of Uitvlugt in 2000, its stills and barrels were transferred to Diamond distillery. Among them were the 3 barrels that contributed to this rum. These were discovered by Gargano, and having spent an incredible 27 years maturing in tropical weather, were bottled straight away for fear of any further evaporation, or as we like to call it, Angels’ Share.

This is one of just 688 bottles.

 

Type: Rum
Distillery: Skeldon
Age: 27 yo
Single cask no: n/a
Distilled: 1978
Bottled: 2004
Strength: 60,4%
Number of bottles: 688