Aroma visualization from community tastings
Velier Skeldon SWR 1978
Strictly a neat, slow-sipping pour — this is a legendary 27-year tropically-aged Skeldon Demerara from Velier, and nobody's putting it near ice. Expect dark, near-black liquid: burnt molasses, dried plums, tobacco, leather and glue, wrapped in heavy tropical oak. The wood sits right at the edge of bitter. One taster called it "as close as perfection could get" for a Demerara; a few felt the cask tipped too far.
The community says- Deep complexity
- Endless finish
- Rich glue and plum
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The look inside the bottle
How does Velier Skeldon SWR 1978 taste?
Aggregated from 50 community reviews.
Dark, intense old Demerara with big oak A revered old Demerara most tasters call unforgettable — dense, complex, endlessly long. The recurring catch: heavy tropical oak that flirts with bitterness, keeping a handful just shy of a perfect score.
Serious Demerara collectors chasing a legendary bottle
Anyone put off by dry, woody bitterness
How the community classifies this rum. Each category takes you to similar rums.
19 of 50 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums
How is Velier Skeldon SWR 1978 rated?
RumX’s 0–10 scale is strict: 9.5 sits in the “Excellent” band. 100% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 0% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →
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Current bids for this rum at Europe's leading auction houses.
Community voices
What does the community say?
0% rate it between 6 and 8. 17 selected write-ups from 50 community ratings. You can view the complete list in our app.
Review by DomM
The nose is just beautiful. Intense and very complex, delivering dark and woody notes alongside dried and fresh fruits as well as a hint of floral notes and a herbal bouquet of herbs in the background. You can spend a lot of time just enjoying this. On the palate, the Sekeldon is again very thick and intense. The long tropical maturation clearly shows with wood dominating the profile. While it is very wood-forward, it is far from one-dimensional. Herbs, dried fruits, and some cardboard create a deep tasting experience. Exceptional dram. Cheers to Jakob for the sample.
Review by Jakob
Very complex without becoming unbalanced at any point. The wood note is particularly impressive, giving the rum a noble depth that borders on the bitter without overpowering the other notes. Heavy, dense consistency. Very nicely integrated alcohol. The only "fly in the ointment": Tasted blind, it doesn't stand out enough in comparison with other Skeldons for me to agree with the perfect score. However, this does not detract from its outstanding quality.
Review by Giorgio Garotti
Over the years that I have been passionate about this distillate, I have always dreamed of tasting this legendary rum! I don't know if perfection exists but this rum definitely is! Really intense in flavors and smells! You can perceive everything sharply! The finish is endless! Chapeu! I was also able to taste the original 1978 straight from the tasting sent to Velier before being cut with part of the 1973 and I must say it was even more intense and incredible than the bottled one!
Review by Oliver
An experience to have this drop in the glass. Dark, burnt, intense - a very own profile! For me, however, far from the perfect 100 points.
Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
14.07.2025 Retasting this wonderful release and I still love it. ---------------- 15.06.2012 Lanternen, Kolding Celebrating a friend's birthday in this bygone bar. Notes Very dark in colour. Nose Balanced, fruity, licorice, herbs, wood, roasted, earthy, light olive, plum. Palate Balanced, complex, oily, wood, roasted, fruity, berries, licorice, light grass, faint nutts, herbs, light plum. Finish Very long, wood, roasted, complex, dried fruits, coffee, medicinal, light mint.
Review by zabo
Edit: just added a nicer picture and corrected the rating after thinking about it again. First: Thank you Jakob for sharing. I take my deepest bow. The timing for a tasting was no longer the most opportune admittedly. We smelled and discussed it for a long time yesterday. I went back to myself and recalled everything. Yes, it's really not bad, admittedly, although my criticism is the woody, bitter coffee note. I find this very borderline. I think if this had come out of the barrel a little earlier, it could definitely break the sound barrier. To be fair, we had quite a few things in the glass that evening that tasted better to me. That's why I can't rate this one too highly for me. Nevertheless, an excellent rum.
Review by Galli33
WoW WoW!!! What a lovely present from my girlfriend❤️ One of the best birthdaypresent ever! Finally i could have a really really small taste of this legendary rum! All in all I would say a remarkable skeldon with all the classic facets (spiciness, dark chocolate, dried fruits, nuts, oak and a bit of licorice), a good complexity and a long last finish. Cheers to Mr. Gargano🥃
Review by Johannes
Compared to the Skeldon73 less bitterness, but more fruity glue note. It doesn't get any better than this! Incredibly round, complex, incredibly long finish...
Review by Mike H.
94 points. I’m extremely happy to cross this one of my bucket list.
Review by Pavel Spacek
This is the rum I would like to drink every day. Nuts, wood, round ... ... Stare Velier Demerara rumy je to nejlepsi, co v rumovem svete muzete ochutnat. Rumy zraly spise omylem nekolik let v tropech a nikdo obsah sudu nedoplnoval. Andelska dan byla 90% a vice, proto je chut obzvlaste plna a intenzivni. I kdyz se jedna o extra drahou zalezitost, doporucu alespon jednou v zivote ochutnat rum z teto serie.
Review by Christoph H.
With much awe and respect one approaches this bottling, given price and reputation.Unfortunately, I did not write a commentary at the time of tasting and must report something from memory. The nose was brute and takes one to Olympus in terms of tropical aged Demerara Rum. Incredibly intense, complex and deep. Lots of stickiness, dried fruit, strong molasses, spice, tobacco...... Almost slays you, as there's hardly any alcohol perceptible either. In the mouth the whole thing repeats itself, however, it is already noticeably overlaid there for me.As impressed as I was, it is not a 100 point rum for me despite everything. Too crass and special is for me, so I would need something like that maybe only 2-3 times a year.Impressive experience!
Review by CHM
In my personal opinion, this rum is very good, also has its own undisputed profile, but I would have expected something more based on the ratings. I was allowed to double blind taste it twice now, without knowing which spirit is in the glass at all. There are better rums for my taste. Nevertheless, a very good bottling.
Review by Rum Freund
Simply legendary stuff!
Review by Maxence
As we could expect after 27 years of aging, this Skeldon is very dark. The nose is super complex and extremely well-balanced. The palate appears to be less balanced because of additional woody notes which are slightly too much bitter for my liking. Still a really good palate though. This rum is definitely worth its legend !
Review by Émile Shevek
Al naso è corposo, pungente e avvolgente, con note di arrostito, legno, tabacco, cuoio, vaniglia, caffè, zucchero bruciato, un po' di colla e prugne mature. Al palato è esplosivo e intenso con note sporche di caucciù*, pelle, poi arrostito, tabacco, barile tostato, chiodi di garofano intensi (purtroppo), cumino, cacao amaro e prugne premature. Finale infinito e ricco, ha un corpo denso e strutturato ai massimi, lascia la bocca impastata. Un gusto unico e speciale, abv perfetto, dimostra 10 gradi in meno, ma dalla rotondità un po' spigolosa, mi aspettavo più dolcezza. Facendolo riposare a lungo il garofano/cumino tende a coprire un po' il resto e diventa dominante. Nel bicchiere vuoto chiodi di garofano, cuoio, arrostito. Purtroppo, essendo sensibile ai chiodi di garofano, che in generale non gradisco, il mio voto ne risente *Non avendo riscontrato in altre recensioni il sentore di caucciù, che mi ha ricordato per certi versi il profilo di un Caroni, mi sorge il dubbio che la bottiglietta ne abbia ospitato uno in precedenza e non sia stata pulita bene. (Dubito sia stato il sentore di bruciato ad avermi tratto in inganno)
Review by Mopar Rules
The epic Skeldon 78! Well, don’t know what Flo of Barrel Aged Thoughts has smoked that day (he seems to be more into Jamaica rum anyway) but this is not the 10.0 points rum. The nose is amazing and high into the 9th, very classic rum flavor with raisins, a touch of polish, intense, burnt caramel and well balanced. After a while resting in the glas, the wooden flavors push the polish back, the cask and the roasted flavors take over. First sip and the legend implodes on the palate. Slightly bitter, the raisins and dried plums have a heavy stand against the by far too dominant influence of the cask. It’s not too much cask but it gets out of balance. It’s intense, strong, heavy but overall the palate is rather a 8.7. The finish is endless with some orange notes but who wants to wake up with a piece of wet wood in the mouth? The old silver seal and Cadenheads bottlings are definitely outscoring this one, so do other Velier bottlings.
Review by Filip Šikula
Velier old demerara večer 17.9.2025 Řekl bych, že dneska nás čeká vrchol toho, co může rumový svět nabídnout. 1. RX5347 albion 1989 2. RX3502 uitvlugt SP-ICBU 1988 3. RX515 uitvlught ULR 1997 4. RX753 enmore ELCR 1995 5. RX867 skeldon SWR 1978 6. RX3001 skeldon SWR 1973 7. RX915 blairmont 1991 8. RX368 diamond SVW 1999 9. RX2729 port mourant PM 1993
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Expert reviews
3 critics scored it, averaging 9.5/10. Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum..
Expert review by Single Cask Rum
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Expert review by Barrel Aged Thoughts
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Expert review by Who Rhum The World
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Expert review by Rum Diaries Blog
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Expert review by The Dunder Hut
Review #1000 on RumX. What a Dram. This is a very complex Rum that changed it's nose several times. This really has the whiff of Cognacs around 1900. Very woody withouth being unnecessary bitte. floral and slightly spicy notes. Some herbs that have been cooked together with stuff(Nutmeg) burned molasses and backed sour plums. After a while it gets a really careful fruitiness with a hint of cotton candy or old Ice-Wine. Also this chalky dusty dryness. Always in a complex melange of things. Truly great. The Palate hits you initially with the sour plums and taste of jammy fruits, peach and grape. There is old wood and a bitterness like brazil nuts. All in a bundle with burned molasses. The alcohol is integrated to perfection and just slightly warm when neeeded. It is adstringent, but withouth being wood-soupy. In the back of the throat is the slight sweet floral hint of old cognac/armagnac of centuries past. It finishes extremely long and warm with a complex spicyness and really dry wood notes. Eternaly dry bitterness that really never overpowers. At the very and that brazil nut bitterness gets hint of artichoke bitterness and a little sensation of eucalyptus, unsweet dried plums and a savoury coating around your mouth. Let's not talk about the question of price, since this is a dimension which in 2024 has only to some degree to do with the content. This 98 is the best scoring I have given a Rum to date. I feel like this is as close as perfection could get to a demerara Rum that actually exists. It bears no flaws and an overall superb, complex and pleasant tasting experience. I am glad i shared this sample with a dear friend, because that is what made the experience a 100/100.
Details about Velier Skeldon SWR 1978
A Column Still Rum from Guyana, bottled by Velier, at 60,4%.
Community purchases
21 bottles logged by 17 collectors.
A collector's bottle.
9% opened, 0 emptied and repurchased.
What does Velier Skeldon SWR 1978 cost?
Community paid 180–7,000 €.
Current best price: 14500.00 € – above the typical community range.
What members actually paid for their bottles. A typical range, not the current shop price. Full price & collection history in RX+ →
21 purchased · 55 tasted · 116 wishlist · as of
About the Skeldon distillery
The Skeldon distillery is located in Guyana. Rums from Skeldon have been reviewed 855 times with an average of 8.9/10.
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Velier Uitvlugt UF30E 1985
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Oliver · FounderBy rum lovers, for rum lovers
I'm Oliver, and RumX began in 2018 as a small passion project in Stuttgart, back then under the name Rum Tasting Notes.
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