El Dorado High Ester PM/DHE Rum

This new Demerara rum expression from El Dorado follows a previous “high ester” release a couple years ago that paired Diamond Distillery’s intense Diamond High Ester (DHE) marque with a rare LBI marque. This time they’re pairing DHE with what is probably Diamond’s most famous still, the legendary Port Mourant wooden pot still initially put into service in 1732 (yes, almost 300 years). PM is one of my favorite stills as it produces oily, heavy, and pungent rum that in the best of ways tastes like old leather shoes filled with tobacco. The new expression is aged for 10 years in second fill Bourbon barrels and retails for around $140 for a 750 ml bottle. Combining PM with the flavorful DHE marque would appear to be a good match so I did some comparisons between the two “high ester” bottles as well as a cask strength single still Port Mourant expression. All of these feature more than ten years of tropical aging, pot still distillation, and a higher ABV, though notably the new PM/DHE is…