Long Pond Plantation (Spanish Orange Wine Cask) VRW 2009

Maison Ferrand selected this single cask Long Pond, distilled in 2009 and aged twelve years, for a Spanish orange wine cask finish under its Plantation label. Long Pond is the historic Wedderburn house of Trelawny, funky and fruit-forward, and here that pot still character is wrapped in a distinctive wine-cask layer at 53% with no added sugar.

The aroma offers tropical fruit, coffee, orange and wood, the palate keeps the woody, orange and tropical fruit theme with a coffee thread, and the finish turns tropical, sweet, coffee-laced and spicy. Tasters note the finish runs sweet at first then very dry, with the orange wine cask, an aromatic white despite the name, clearly shaping the rum and at times dominating it. Fresh in the glass the tropical fruit leads before the wood asserts itself. This is a cask-forward Long Pond for drinkers who enjoy a strong wine-finish accent, where the orange and coffee notes layer over the Trelawny fruit rather than letting it run free.