DDL 16 year 2004 Versailles still Golden Devil K&L exclusive (61.4%)

N: buttered popcorn, nut skins, boiled egg, rice vinegar, just a hint of caramel or butterscotch. With water: melted butter and caramel or syrup run together now, better integrated but less interestingly savory. Still a slightly sulphury-eggy note

P: sweet, hot, and acidic all at once, which makes discerning more precise notes difficult, but again there’s buttered popcorn and something nutty and slightly candied. With water: peanut candy and habanero hot sauce emerge as more distinct flavors. With enough water there’s some cedar chip

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DDL 22 year 2003 Versailles still Berry Bros & Rudd (57.4%)

N: a close relative of the Golden Devil; drier and less buttery, sharper vinegar, the nose is not as engaging

P: a lighter weight presence in the palate, more vanilla than caramel and butter, almond more than peanut. Amaretto, in other words (and not nearly as dry as I suspected from the nose), along with that brightly acidic, slightly vegetal pepper. Not complex, but that dual nature is very satisfying

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DDL 17 year 2006 Enmore Versailles REV RumClub #39 (56.2%)

N: much different from the other two, as was apparent from the color. Still a definite vinegar note, but an older darker one, soaked in tannic oak, maybe toasted sesame or other darker toasted nuts. Reminds me a little of a darker amontillado or Shaoxing wine, but sweeter with an herbal underside, and a bit of mango

P: dark and sugary molasses and burned sugar, but drying oak too. Fig, the burned top of a pecan pie, a hint of cocoa, browned mint (actually it makes me think of mint glazed in a pan with sugar and water), and balancing salinity

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