TCRL Worthy Park WP 2013

Worthy Park is St. Catherine's 100% pot still single estate, a modern Forsyths-equipped house known for clean, precise, moderate-ester rum rather than the solvent extremes of Hampden. This young 2013, bottled by Transcontinental Rum Line, the rum arm of La Maison du Whisky, catches the distillery's character early, before long ageing has had a chance to smooth it.

Distilled on the pot still from molasses and matured in ex-bourbon casks, it is bottled unsweetened at navy strength, 57.18%. The nose is fresh and fruity with green apple and pineapple, the palate brings tropical fruit, spice and vanilla, and the finish turns dry, woody and faintly bitter with a herbal, peculiar edge that some find disarmingly strange. At five years it carries fruit and funk without going overboard, a characterful pot still Jamaican that works neat for the curious and shines in a bold cocktail.