Long Pond Rare Cask VRW 2003

Long Pond is the historic Wedderburn house of Trelawny, and this distillery bottling of the VRW marque, distilled in 2003 on a John Dore pot still, shows it at full stretch. A single cask at 60% and unsweetened, eighteen years old, it is the kind of fruit forward, polished Jamaican that fans of the estate hold up as a reference.

Molasses fermentation and tropical maturation in ex-bourbon oak have concentrated the fruit and added a layer of oak without smothering the esters. The nose carries tropical fruit, nail polish and wood, the palate is woody and well rounded with baking spice and ripe fruit, and the finish returns to pineapple, banana and more tropical fruit. Intense but elegant, it pairs Long Pond funk with eighteen years of age in a way that rewards slow, attentive sipping.