Banks Guyana Connoisseur's Cut

Nose: Tar, smoke, black olives, their brine, capers, their brine too, Black Jack sweets. Vegetal. Concentrated, intense and full. Under the slap in the face there are some tropical fruits (Fruit Salad sweets now!) and something tart. Ah, oak appears, toasted and warm though, not raw and cut. Caramels sit in the back and some evidence of sweetness from somewhere. A touch of marzipan. Quite outstanding.

Palate: Full mouth feel, oily and semi-viscous. Off dry delivery. Seawater, seaweed, salted liquorice, olives again. Tar, petrol and then a burst of high tone fruits like limes, green apples, cigar and some grapefruit. Very light caramel (maybe from the Cognac cask?) and then some pencil shavings.

Finish: Looooooong. It’s so long it’s way over there somewhere. Tarry, liquoricey, briney, almost a sweet grape to it – well, I know it’s spent 13 years in Cognac casks so that may be leading me somewhat. Oh yeah, some lemons and limes pop up with some grassy/caney notes to try and do their best to keep some freshness, and they manage it….just about. Don’t bother drinking anything else after this, my palate is fried. I finished drinking this 2 hours ago and it’s still all I can taste.

More here:
https://rumtastic.wordpress.com/2016/06/12/banks-connoisseurs-cut-guyana-cognac-cask/

Had a sampling of this intense cask-strength Demerara rum which was initially housed in oak and later re-casked in cognac barrels. Uncolored and unsweetened, it presents an intense aroma of vegetation, rubber and petroleum, with flavors of overripe tropical fruit, wood and ether. I could learn to love it, but life is short. Best just to move on...