The Nectar Caroni The Nectar Of The Daily Drams 1998

Caroni closed in 2003, and this 1998 vintage comes through The Nectar's Daily Drams line, a single cask bottled at 55.5 percent. It shows the heavy, oily side of the closed Trinidad distillery while staying lighter on the dirtiest notes than some of its peers.

The nose carries woody depth, dried fruit and a minty, roasted character, and the palate is warm and oily with tobacco, tar and rubber in the classic industrial mould. The finish stays woody and roasted with herbal and spiced notes. Distilled from Trinidadian molasses on the distillery's varied still park and matured in oak, it offers the savoury, petroleum-tinged intensity Caroni is known for without any added sugar. One drinker found it very oily on the palate yet relatively clean, a well-judged release that gives plenty of heavy Trinidad character at a fair pour.